During a recent event in the Vietnamese Embassy in China, the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade addressed logistics cooperation between the two countries.
Leandro Harari, Chairman of World Freight Organization (WFO), which represents a network of worldwide logistics companies, said the Vietnamese economy is becoming more attractive to foreign companies. Several attendees said that improvements in visa acquisition and infrastructure investments “will make the country more attractive as Vietnam’s exports are on the rise.”
Vietnamese Ambassador to China Dang Minh Khoi said that Vietnam is speeding up industrialization and modernization and is giving priority to the development of high-tech industries, green technologies, clean energy, organic agriculture and digital economy.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh held that Vietnam and China boast huge potential for stepping up logistics cooperation. At the event, the leaders witnessed the signing of several agreements on strengthening logistics cooperation between enterprises from both nations.
The steel industry is forecast to grow by 20-22 percent in 2018, said Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association (VSA), Nguyen Van Sua, early in 2018. The country earned US$3.64 billion from exporting 5.5 million mt of steel products, up 45.4 percent in value and 28.5 percent in volume against the previous year. Meanwhile, it spent US$10.5 billion purchasing nearly 20 million mt of steel from foreign countries, which reflected a rise of 13.2 percent in value and a decrease of 14.2 percent in volume compared to 2016. Vietnam is an important export destination for Chinese steel products.
Bilateral trade between Vietnam and China reached US$93.69 billion in 2017, with Vietnam registering a trade deficit of US$22.76 billion. Two-way trade may reach a record US$100 billion in 2018.