VN-Latin America trade value heads to US$18 bln

VGP – Viet Nam-Latin America investment and trade forum will become an annual event to create opportunity for the two sides’ business communities to meet and exchange to seek for business opportunities, especially for Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

November 14, 2018 3:04 PM GMT+7

Viet Nam-Latin America investment and trade forum, Ho Chi Minh City, November 14, 2018 - Photo: VGP/Le Anh

The forum, organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT), attracted the participation of leaders from southern localities’ trade and investment promotion agencies, Viet Nam’s production and export business communities and associations, Viet Nam’s trade representatives in Latin American nations and representatives of business and corporations from Latin America operating in Viet Nam.

Two-way trade value sharply increases

According to the report of the MIT, Viet Nam now has trade relations with all nations in the Latin America with the total two-way trade value from US$245 million in 2000 to US$3.95 billion in 2010 and US$13.49 billion in 2017, of which Viet Nam’s exports and imports reached US$7.91 billion and US$5.58 billion, respectively.

Viet Nam has poured investment in the Latin America with the capital of hundreds of US$ such as oil exploration and exploitation in Peru and telecommunications projects in Haiti and Peru.

However, Latin American nations’ investment in Viet Nam is limited. Argentina has only poured US$3.2 million in four projects in Viet Nam.

Leaders of the MIT said that Viet Nam expects to bring the two-way trade value to US$18 billion by 2021, attracting around US$3-5 billion in investment from Latin American countries, focusing on such areas as energy, petrol, telecommunications and agriculture.

Trade agreements with Latin American nations inked

Deputy Minister of the MIT said that Viet Nam has inked a number of agreements with other nations in the Latin America to boost economic, trade and investment ties. Remarkably the Viet Nam-Chile Free Trade Agreement was inked in 2011 and has come into effect since 2014 and the Viet Nam-Cuba Trade Agreement was signed on November 9, 2018.

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) (Chile, Peru and Mexico have joined) was inked in March 2018. Recently, Viet Nam has become the seventh nation approving the agreement.

Viet Nam has established inter-Governmental Committees, Joint Committees and Trade Councils with 10 Latin American nations including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

These committees are considered as crucial channels for the two sides to exchange information, identify cooperative areas, mechanisms and projects as well as support and boost the implementation of cooperative projects and programs of mutual concerns.

By Thuy Dung