Officials at the signing ceremony. — VNA/VNS Photo Tran Quoc Viet

The trade and investment promotion agencies of Viet Nam and Uruguay inked a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday on co-operation between the two sides.

The agreement will serve as a cornerstone to further collaborate on promoting trade and bring businesses of Viet Nam and Uruguay closer in order to raise bilateral trade revenue, Vu Ba Phu, director of the Viet Nam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry, said at the signing ceremony.

He expressed his hope that Vietrade and Uruguay’s Investment, Export and Country Brand Promotion Agency would increase the exchange of business delegations to deepen relations between Vietnamese and Uruguayan firms.

Two-way trade between the nations stood at US$140 million in 2018, a year-on-year rise of 19 per cent. Viet Nam exported $82 million worth of goods to the South American nation, up 17.3 per cent from the previous year.

Viet Nam’s key export staples included footwear, garments, computers, electronic products and spare parts, aquatic products, mobile phones and spare parts and rattan, bamboo and sedge products.

Meanwhile, the country mostly imported timber and wood products, leather and footwear materials, pharmaceutical products, milk and dairy products, cattle feed and chemicals from Uruguay. — VNS