Participants at the event. — VNA/VNS Photo

A webinar discussing ways that Vietnamese and Singaporean businesses can fully tap opportunities brought by free trade agreements (FTAs) with the EU and the UK to expand their cooperation, was jointly held by the Vietnamese Embassy and the Vietnamese Trade Office in Singapore on Saturday.

Leading experts on FTAs, representatives from more than 200 Vietnamese and Singaporean enterprises, and multinational companies in Singapore took part in the event.

Vietnamese Ambassador Mai Phuoc Dung said Viet Nam and Singapore were the two countries with the highest economic openness in Southeast Asia and the only two ASEAN countries that had signed FTAs with the EU and the UK.

This proved governments and businesses had the same goal of participating in economic links to diversify export markets, and participate more deeply in global value chains and product networks to improving their competitiveness and promoting sustainable growth.

Since these FTAs took effect, both countries have witnessed strong growth in exports.

Last year, exports of Viet Nam and Singapore to the EU increased by about 18 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively. Viet Nam also witnessed an impressive growth rate in exports to the UK recently.

One of many fields with great opportunities for cooperation between Vietnamese and Singaporean businesses was exporting agricultural products and processed foods to the EU and UK, the diplomat noted.

Vietnamese enterprises could double their export values to these markets by 2025 if they could exploit advantages and expand investment in deep processing and promote brands abroad. Meanwhile, processed food was still one of the top ten products in Singapore's export structure.

Singaporean agencies and businesses were seeking ways to promote export of processed foods by diversifying supply resources of raw agricultural products from Viet Nam, he said

In addition, taking advantage of the principle of origin to coordinate in manufacturing original equipment, jointly exploiting brands and a network of import partners, developing logistics and e-commerce cooperation mechanisms for processed food sector to jointly make inroads into the EU and UK markets, were larger prospects that Vietnamese and Singaporean businesses could tap to expand their cooperation.

Participants at the event also focused their discussions on practices for applying the FTAs with the EU and the UK to reduce import taxes. — VNS