(VNF) - Vietnam and Turkey have agreed to strive for two-way trade of USD 4 billion by 2020 during the seventh meeting of the Vietnam-Turkey Joint Committee in Hanoi on July 13^th.

At the meeting in Hanoi on July 13^th. (Photo: VNA)

The meeting was chaired by Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh and Turkish Minister of Labour and Social Security Mehmet Muezzinoglu.

Muezzinoglu suggested launching negotiations fora bilateral free trade agreement while the Vietnamese side asked Turkey to recognise Vietnam as a market economy and minimise trade defence measures hindering Vietnamese exports.

In industry, the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Agency for Regional Industry Development and the Small and Medium Industry Development Organisation of Turkey (KOSGEB) signed an action plan to continue promoting joint work in small and medium-sized enterprise affairs.

In regards to investment, the two sides reached a consensus on the contents of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in the management of economic, industrial and processing zones.

Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh speaks at the meeting. (Photo: moit.gov.vn)

They also agreed on the contents of the MoU on customs cooperation between the Finance Ministry and the Turkish Ministry of Customs and Trade.

Both sides were unanimous on collaboration between the Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality and the Turkish Standards Institution.

The two countries are actively refining contents towards the signing of agreements on statistics, science and technology, labour, education and training, culture, tourism, health care, natural resources and the environment.

Collaboration in energy, food processing, construction, machinery and equipment will also be strengthened.

At a ceremony held to sign the minutes of the meeting in the afternoon, Minister Anh noted that Vietnam and Turkey have already signed agreements on aviation transport, navigation and double taxation avoidance.

Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh and Turkish Minister of Labour and Social Security Mehmet Muezzinoglu at a ceremony held to sign the minutes of the meeting in the afternoon July 13^th. (Photo: moit.gov.vn)

Turkey launched direct flight services connecting Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

In the first five months this year, two-way trade between the two nations reached USD 724.6 million, USD 634.9 million of which was Vietnam’s exports, mostly cell phones, fibers, computers, electronics and spare parts, rubber, machinery and equipment, iron and steel, apparel, peppercorns, cashew nuts, wood and wooden furniture, fisheries, footwear and handicraft items./.

Compiled by VNF