Viet Nam and Egypt’s goal of increasing two-way trade to US$1 billion in the future is fully feasible, said Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Chairman Vu Tien Loc.

Loc made the remark at the Viet Nam – Egypt Business Forum, co-organised by VCCI and the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC), in Ha Noi on Thursday.

Loc said the economic cooperation opportunities between Viet Nam and Egypt are huge, especially in each country’s fields of strength, such as manufacturing, shipbuilding, garment and textiles, footwear and oil and gas.

Addressing the forum, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh said the event helped foster economic and trade co-operation between the two countries.

Minh said Viet Nam hopes Egypt will serve as a bridge to connect the Southeast Asian country with other nations in Africa.

He added that doing business in Viet Nam would give Egyptian businesses access to not only a market with 93 million people in Viet Nam, but also the greater market of ASEAN and the world, as the country has signed 12 free trade agreements and is pushing ahead with negotiations on four other pacts.

The Deputy PM told the audience that Viet Nam’s policies have helped domestic and foreign businesses reap success in the country.

Viet Nam was among the 60 most competitive nations in the world out of 138 countries ranked in the 2016-17 edition of the Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum, he said.

About 76 per cent of European enterprises operating in Viet Nam said they are optimistic about business prospects in 2017, according to a Business Climate Index survey for the fourth quarter of 2016 conducted by the European Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam.

The Deputy PM asked the VCCI to actively coordinate with the FEDCOC to facilitate business operations and connections between Vietnamese and Egyptian enterprises.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Egypt wished to become a strategic hub for economic development, focusing on developing logistics and building industrial parks to export products to other nations, as well as implementing projects on land development, renewable energy, and new administrative urban areas.

Egypt welcomes Vietnamese businesses to invest in developing small-and medium-sized enterprises, particularly in the areas of shipbuilding, construction, aquaculture, fertiliser and garment-textiles, he added.

Egypt is now the third biggest trade partner of Viet Nam in Africa, with two-way trade reaching an annual average of $320 million. — VNS