Sharing at the workshop "Taking advantage of FTA leverage to enter ASEAN: Industrial and technological opportunities for Canadian businesses in Vietnam" held in British Columbia (BC) coordinated by the Vietnam Trade Office in Canada, British Columbia Minister of Trade Jagrup Brar said that Canada is aware of the value and importance of strengthening international cooperation when the global economy has faced unprecedented instability and its impact to the country's business operations and supply chains.

Minister Jagrup Brar affirmed that strengthening relationships with global partners like Vietnam is crucial. This country is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is one of the regions with the fastest economic growth in the world, and Vietnam is the top destination for Canadian goods and services among ASEAN countries, thanks to an average economic growth rate of 7% over the past 30 years.

According to Brar, Vietnam acts as a gateway for Canadian businesses wanting to access the ASEAN market of 660 million customers. Trade relations between Vietnam and the province of British Columbia have begun to regain momentum, with a growth of 63% last year. BC is also the most popular destination for Vietnamese businesses, with 6 projects worth more than CAD 300 million (US $219,48 million).

Workshop "Taking advantage of FTA leverage to enter ASEAN: Industrial and technological opportunities for Canadian businesses in Vietnam" held in British Columbia (Photo: VNA)

“British Columbia's forestry industry is benefiting from its relationship with Vietnam through the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), in which softwood lumber exports have increased nearly 60% in the past five years, " said Minister Jagrup Brar. He explained that the opportunities for industrial and technological cooperation for Canadian businesses in Vietnam would increase, contributing to promoting bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Meanwhile, reviewing five years of implementation of CPTPP in the new context of the Indo-Pacific Strategy and moving towards the ASEAN-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Vietnam Consul General in British Columbia Nguyen Quang Trung commented, the CPTPP market with a trade bloc representing 500 million people with a GDP of about CAD 13.500 billion, has brought new opportunities for economic, trade and investment relations of the two sides. As members of this Agreement, both Vietnamese and Canadian investors and exporters are benefiting from open market access and a regulatory tariff reduction environment.

Trade Counselor Tran Thu Quynh at the Vietnamese Embassy said that British Columbia and Vietnam have great potential for cooperation in the industrial sector, especially in clean energy, electric vehicles, and automobile industry, artificial intelligence (AI), and semiconductors.

Commenting on the potential, investment cooperation, science transfer as well as trade connection opportunities between businesses of the two countries, Hoang Ngoc Dinh who is in charge of science and technology cooperation at the Vietnamese Embassy noted that new technologies such as renewable energy, semiconductor technology, essential metal mining and processing... are fields that Vietnam is in great demand and Canada can meet.

These fields not only help Canadian investors take advantage of the Vietnamese market but also take full advantage of the Canadian Government's support policies such as the Climate Fund or the Fair Energy Transition Partnership Program.

Vietnam is emerging as an attractive and potential destination for Canadian investors, especially after the event of Vietnam and the US upgrading their relationship to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership. It is high time for partners of both Canada and Vietnam to promote cooperation, take advantage, and exploit the potential to quickly become reliable and strategic partners in the fields of science and technology in the future.

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