|
Vietnam, China set to tighten trade, investment ties
A business roundtable convened on October 20 in Nanning city, Guangxi province for Vietnamese and Chinese enterprises.
As part of the 6th China-ASEAN Expo, the roundtable, themed “Holding hands against crisis, promoting mutual growth” was attended by Vietnamese government leaders and representatives of 13 large Vietnamese and Chinese groups, such as the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), the Vietnam National Coal-Miniral Industries Group, the China Import Export Bank, the China Machinery Import Company, among others.
Speaking at the forum, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Sinh Hung, gave feedback on queries by Chinese business representatives concerning Vietnam’s regulations in the areas of investment and trade, scientific and technological applications, environmental protection, infrastructure development and fertilizer production.
Hung said he believed Vietnam and China have a firm foundation for boosting trade and investment cooperation, in view of the two countries’ geographical closeness and especially at this point of time when the global economy has shown signs of recovery and the China-ASEAN free trade area is in the making and scheduled to be fully opened by 2010.
China has been Vietnam ’s largest trading partner since 2004. Last year Vietnam and China reached a target of 20 billion USD in bilateral trade, two years ahead of schedule. So far, China has invested in 655 projects in Vietnam, with a total registered capital of 2.23 billion USD.
According to Deputy PM Hung, China ’s development assistance and low-interest loans to Vietnam have been steadily increasing. The financial support, which was mainly focused on priority areas such as electricity, mining, fertilizer production, metallurgy and mechanical manufacturing, has greatly contributed to the socio-economic development of Vietnam.
vietnamplus
|
