Last year, two-way trading turnover between Viet Nam and Shandong Province reached $2.42 billion for a year-on-year growth of 17 per cent.—Photo thongtinthuongmai

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam welcomes greater trade and investment ties with firms from the Chinese province of Shandong, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu said at a seminar yesterday.

He said Viet Nam was a dynamic developing market with high stability and safety, citing the country's advantageous geographic location, diverse and plentiful natural resources, a young and diligent workforce.

Viet Nam is integrating deeply into the world economy, he stressed.

As such it is a promising place for investing and trading for Chinese enterprises in general, and Shandong enterprises in particular, he added.

Xia Geng, deputy chairman of Shandong, who is heading a delegation of 20 businesses on a five-day visit to Viet Nam, expressed confidence that firms from both countries would intensify cooperation in tropical agricultural produce, rubber, garments, electricity, and construction.

Yesterday's seminar was attended by 40 Vietnamese enterprises.

Tu suggested that Shandong's authorities encourage the province's major enterprises to invest in and import goods from Viet Nam, create advantageous conditions and support Vietnamese enterprises in participating in trade promotion events held in the Chinese province.

Also yesterday, the deputy minister and deputy governor witnessed the signing of agreements worth a total of US$200 million related to export of agricultural produce, building thermal power plants, making tyres, building logistics and cold storage facilities and several other deals.

They also inaugurated the Sailun Industrial Park ­Shandong in southern Tay Ninh Province.

In a meeting before the seminar, Tu and Xia Geng reviewed trade cooperation between Viet Nam and China in general and with Shandong in particular.

They said remarkable results have been achieved, but much more could be done.

Last year, two-way trading turnover between Viet Nam and Shandong Province reached $2.42 billion for a year-on-year growth of 17 per cent.

Viet Nam exported goods worth $1.14 billion, up 24.9 per cent year-on-year, while its imports went up 10.7 per cent to $1.28 billion.

In the first half of this year, the total trading turnover reached $1.25 billion, up 4.6 per cent, of which Viet Nam's exports were worth $510 million, down 24.9 per cent year-on-year, while its imports rose 28.1 per cent to $740 million. — VNS