VN, Bangladesh head to US$1 bln in trade value

VGP – State President Tran Dai Quang will pay a State visit to Bangladesh from March 4-6 at the invitation of Bangladeshi President Mohammad Abdul Hamid, marking the first official visit made by a Vietnamese State President to Bangladeshi since 2004.

March 03, 2018 6:49 PM GMT+7

Illustration photo

Establishing diplomatic relations on February 11, 1973, Viet Nam and Bangladesh have strengthened the traditional relationship and multi-faceted relations over the recent years through high-ranking delegation exchanges such as Honorable Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury’s visit to Viet Nam in July 2017 and Permanent Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Ting Thi Phong’s visit to Dhaka, Bangladesh to attend the 136th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in April 2017.

Regarding national defense-security relations, the two sides shared experience in joining United Nations UN peacekeeping missions and trans-national crime prevention. Viet Nam welcomed several delegations of leaders and staff of the Bangladesh Military Academy to the country.

Bangladesh expects that Viet Nam will advocate the nation to become a dialogue partner of ASEAN, join the Mekong–Ganga Cooperation (MGC) and the East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC).

Two-way trade value reaches nearly US$1 billion

VGP/Thuy Dung

The two nations’ trade turnover in 2017 exceeded US$900 million. They are striving to raise the figure to US$1 billion in two-way trade value in the upcoming years.

The two nations inked a Memorandum of Understanding on rice trading in 2011 and extended till 2022 (in May 2017).

As of the end of December 2017, Bangladesh had invested in four projects worth US$615,000 in Viet Nam, ranking 99th out of 125 countries and territories investing in the country. Viet Nam recorded one project worth US$27,900 in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh commits to facilitating Vietnamese enterprises to invest in fields of power development, information technology, footwear production, infrastructure and fruits and vegetables planting and processing.

By Thuy Dung