VN, Indonesia strike a rice deal

VGP - Việt Nam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade signed a memorandum of understanding on rice cooperation at the 5th session of the joint committee for economic, scientific and technological cooperation just concluded in Hồ Chí Minh City.

April 27, 2009 5:10 PM GMT+7

During the session, both sides stressed the importance of bilateral cooperation for the development of each country.

The relationship between the two countries has been flourishing. They have actively supported each other on international and regional forums, especially in ASEAN.

Indonesia appreciates Việt Nam’s role in ASEAN, considering it one of influential countries to work with. Since the 4^th session of the joint committees (April 2007 in Jakarta), bilateral ties have been fruitful in economics, science and technology.

In 2008, the two-way trade reached US $2.522 billion, 2.6% higher than 2007. Việt Nam earned US $793 billion from its exports to Indonesia and spent US $1.729 billion for the ASEAN fellow member’s imports.

Under a framework of tripartite oil and gas cooperation, PetroVietnam, Indonesia’s Pertamina and Malaysia’s Petronas are conducting effective joint exploration activities.

Until the end of last year, Indonesia had 21 valid FDI projects worth US $178.4 million, ranking the 32nd of 84 countries and territories investing in Việt Nam.

Việt Nam poured US $46.18 million in three projects in Indonesia.

By Ngọc Vân