Room for Vietnam's Trade and Investment Cooperation With Eurasia

Speakers attended the Trade Forum on cooperation with partners from Eurasia region 2021, on the afternoon of December 22 in Hanoi. Photo: WVR

The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Department of European-American Markets held a trade cooperation forum with Eurasian partners, on December 22.

The forum aims to provide Vietnam's business community with up-to-date information on policies in Eurasian countries in the context that the world economy has undergone fundamental changes in response to the pandemic.

Speaking at the opening of the forum, Ta Hoang Linh, director of the Department of European-American Markets (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that the Eurasian market is a traditional market of Vietnam in the past and is now considered a potential export market.

Vietnam and Eurasian countries have established solid institutions and frameworks as the foundation for the development of bilateral cooperation. This is the basis for Vietnamese enterprises and businesses from Asia and Europe to cooperate in the fields of economy, trade and investment.

Regarding trade, bilateral trade relations between Vietnam and Eurasian countries are developing. According to data of Vietnam Customs, in 2020, the two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and the Eurasian region reached US$12.7 billion, up 20.4% compared to 2019, accounting for 2.3% of the total import-export turnover of Vietnam with the world. In which, Vietnam's exports increased 14.2% to US$8.9 billion.

Despite facing unstable movements of global trade and the Covid-19 pandemic, trade turnover with the Eurasian region in the first 11 months of 2021 shows that this is still a region with impressive growth, in terms of import and export of Vietnam. Total two-way turnover reached US$12.7 billion, up 13.1%. In which, exports reached US$8.6 billion, up 10%, imports reached US$4.1 billion, up 20.5% over the same period in 2020.

However, Vietnam's export turnover is still very modest compared to the total import demand of about US$1.345 billion of countries in the region (only 0.66% market share). Therefore, the room for Vietnamese goods to be exported to this market is still very large.

Regarding investment, according to statistics of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, by the end of November 2021, 18 out of 28 countries in the Eurasia region have invested in Vietnam in 319 projects. Total registered capital reached about US$1.78 billion, equivalent to 0.44% of total foreign capital invested in Vietnam.

At the forum, the speakers provided a lot of detailed information and answered questions about import policies, investment attraction of host countries, updated with changes in the needs and tastes of the market, and useful advice on taking advantage of opportunities from regional free trade agreements (EVFTA, EAEUFTA).

Regarding logistics, the speakers shared a lot of information about the Eurasian rail intermodal. Accordingly, goods are transported by rail from Vietnam, through 2 border gates of Dong Dang and Lao Cai connecting with the Asia-Europe railway, through China to Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan), Russia, and European countries. In the context of increasing costs of ocean freight, high-cost air transport, rail transport becomes more attractive.

Trade turnover with Eurasia in the first 11 months of 2021 shows that this is still an area with impressive growth in terms of import and export of Vietnam. Photo: VTV

A representative of Russia's Ozon company introduced a way for Vietnamese businesses to join the country's e-commerce platforms to find customers, export, distribute and sell goods to the market.

Vietnamese Trade Offices in other countries in the region also introduce and share information about e-commerce platforms in these markets so that Vietnamese businesses can access and seek export opportunities online.

The Czech representative of Skoda Group also informed about investment needs, looking for partners to invest in an automobile assembly plant in Vietnam. The company hopes that, through the forum, it can find more partners who are Vietnamese enterprises to cooperate in the process of this enterprise building a factory in Vietnam.

At the end of the forum, Ta Hoang Linh, director of the Department of European-American Markets said: "As the agency presiding over bilateral and multilateral cooperation activities, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will continue to accompany the community to promote trade and investment activities between Vietnam and the European-American market, the Eurasian market.

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