Vietnamese envoy vows to strengthen economic ties

Lahore: Vietnam Ambassador Vietnam Nguyen Tien Phong said that Pakistan and Vietnam can use each other’s strength.

“Pakistan can avail the opportunities from FTAs of Vietnam with EU, USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and others and similarly Vietnam can benefit from Pakistan’s GSP Plus Status,” said the Vietnamese envoy during his visit to Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday.  LCCI President Kashif Anwar welcomed the ambassador.

Executive Committee Members Mian Attiq ur Rehman, Raja Hassan Akhter and Hakeem Muhammad Usman were also present on the occasion.

The Ambassador said that Pakistan has a huge potential which can be used to promote trade between both the countries.

He emphasized on business to business and people to people contacts and said that E-visa is important to promote business activities.

The Ambassador also highlighted the potential sectors where the two countries can collaborate. He mentioned tourism and said that the delegations and contacts are important.

While highlighting textile sector, he said that Vietnam imports yarn and cotton from Pakistan, makes garments and exports to EU, Japan and USA and Pakistan can also import fiber from Vietnam to produce fabric for export purposes.

He said that the IT is another field where affiliations are important as Vietnam currently affiliated with Japan, India, South Korea and other countries. He said that Pakistan has a very strong IT labor force and both the countries may start joint ventures in this field.

He said that agriculture is also a very important sector, and mentioned Vietnam success from starving insecure food supply before 1986 to third biggest rice exporter in 1989.

He also highlighted the potential sectors including Halal food, sea food, fish farming and others.

LCCI President Kashif Anwar said that both Vietnam and Pakistan enjoy more than 50 years of sound diplomatic relations that were formally established in 1972. Besides it, both countries enjoy trade and economic cooperation in diverse fields.

He said that despite starting as one of the weaker economies in the mid of 1970s and 1980s, Vietnam emerged against all the odds. Following the path of rapid economic growth, Vietnam showed impressive progress in industrial, agricultural and services sectors. That was the result of a broad-based economic transformation which opened the Vietnam economy to international markets and foreign trade.

 It is pertinent to mention that the global exports of Vietnam have surpassed 370 Billion Dollars while the global imports of Vietnam have crossed 358 Billion Dollars.

“We have a lot to learn from Vietnam economic model,” said Kashif.

He mentioned the trade statistics between Pakistan and Vietnam.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan’s exports to Vietnam dropped from 261 million dollars in 2021-22 to 244 million dollars in 2022-23. In the same period, the imports from Vietnam also decreased from 578 million dollars to 229 million dollars. In the first seven months of the current financial year (July 2023 to January 2024), Pakistan’s exports to Vietnam stood at 248 million dollars while the imports were 165 million dollars.

He added that we should take bilateral trade volume to at least 2 billion dollars.