The Europe-America Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade organised a trade cooperation forum with Eurasian partners in 2021 on Wednesday in Ha Noi to support the Vietnamese business community to overcome difficulties, increase exports of goods, and expand export markets in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at the event, department director Ta Hoang Linh described Eurasia as a huge market with 28 countries which are home to a population of over 410 million people and a gross domestic product of over US$3.3 trillion.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, two-way trade between Viet Nam and Eurasia still hit $12.7 billion in 11 months of this year, up 13.1 per cent annually. Of the figure, $8.6 billion was Viet Nam’s exports which remained modest compared to their import demand of more than $1.34 trillion, or only 0.66 per cent of the market share, showing that room for Viet Nam’s exports remains huge.

As of late November, 18 out of 28 regional countries invested in 319 projects worth nearly $1.78 billion in Viet Nam, or 0.44 per cent of the total foreign direct investment in the country.

Meanwhile, Viet Nam poured around $2.82 billion in 37 projects in nine regional nations as of late September. Russia was the biggest recipient of Vietnamese investment with 15 projects valued at $2.8 billion.

According to Linh, Viet Nam and Eurasian countries have established solid institutions and frameworks as the foundation for the development of bilateral cooperation.

They include the Viet Nam-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement (VN-EAEU FTA); the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA); Investment Protection Agreement between Viet Nam and the EU (EVIPA); and the Bilateral Economic Cooperation Consultation Mechanism. Vietnamese enterprises and enterprises of Eurasian countries could promote cooperation in the fields of economy, trade and investment based on those.

In addition, bilateral trade relations between Viet Nam and Eurasian countries are constantly being developed.

At the forum, several speakers shared information about the Asia-Europe international railway route. Goods are transported by rail from Viet Nam connecting to the Eurasian Railway via China to Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan), Russia and European countries.

In the context of increasing costs of marine freight and air transport, rail transport is becoming more and more attractive because it has a shorter transport time than shipping, reasonable cost for higher quantity of goods and safety.

Therefore, transporting goods through the Asia-Europe railway has become one of the suitable options for import-export businesses of Viet Nam and other countries in this region.

They also pointed out the benefit of goods transportation via seaports in Eastern Europe such as Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania and shared information about e-commerce sites in these markets to help Vietnamese firms seek export opportunities.

Questions regarding foreign countries’ import and investment attraction policies were answered at the event. Market demands and opportunities from free trade agreements were also updated.

Linh affirmed that the ministry will continue partnering with business community to boost trade and investment activities between Viet Nam and Europe-America and Asia-Europe in particular. — VNS