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Islamabad: There are vast opportunities to increase bilateral trade between Pakistan and Vietnam, which need immediate right policies and prompt actions to take advantage of accelerating businesses.
Nguyen Tien Phong, Ambassador of Vietnam made these remarks at keynote address on ‘Envisioning Comprehensive Pakistan-Vietnam Cooperation: Prospects and Opportunities’ organized by the NUST Institute of Policy Studies (NIPS), a leading g think-tank of NUST, based in Islamabad, on Wednesday.
Highlighting the rapid transformation of Vietnam, he said “despite starting as one of the weaker economies in the mid-1970s and 1980s, Vietnam emerged against all the odds. Following the path of rapid economic development, Vietnam showed impressive progress in industrial, agricultural and services sectors. That was the result of a broad-based economic transformation which dismantled the largely planned economy, while opening a closed economy to international markets,” envoy added.
While elaborating the business cooperation between the two countries, he said, Vietnamese businesspersons can help Pakistani counterparts in value addition in textile, leading to exports reaching EU markets under the free trade agreements.
Emphasising on creating facilities at the government level to increase mutual relations between the two countries, he said “Pakistani trades are facing difficulties, and containers are stuck at sea ports, but we have a solution as we can develop an actionable mechanism to foster trade and commerce.
He welcomed trade exchanges, and ensured support for win-win cooperation between Vietnamese businessmen and trade organizations of Pakistan in areas cotton, yarn, and textile. He also added that the Vietnamese businesspersons can help find potential partners for Pakistani businessmen.
Moreover, the economic strength of Faisalabad and Gujranwala can be pivotal points for boosting bilateral trade between Pakistan and Vietnam, ambassador emphasised.
Highlighting the economic potential and possible opportunities for Pakistan business community, he said “Vietnam also exports fisheries, tea, coffee, paper, chemicals, ginger and other products to Pakistan which are not more than 0.5% of our total exports,” he said.
He further added by saying “Vietnam imports pharmaceuticals, cotton, leather products “the volume of which is also very low,” which opens a window of trade collocation between the two countries.
Recalling the bilateral diplomatic relations, envoy said “Vietnam and Pakistan have celebrated 50 years of relations. Pakistan has always supported Vietnam in all the international forums. We should take strategic steps that help in fostering our relations, and boost our economic ties,”.
On joint collaboration opportunities created by projects of CPEC, and BRI, he said “Vietnams businessmen are interested to explore trade and investment opportunities in energy and infrastructure projects launched under the CPEC and BRI.
Establishing bilateral business mechanism is vital to promote trade and commerce between Vietnam and Pakistan, “as numerous MoUs have been signed but no solid action is taken from Pakistan’s trade bodies”.
During his keynote, ambassador highlighted the historical significance of not only trade cultural, and tourism links but also emphasized the importance of comprehensive cooperation partnership between Pak-Vietnam for common development and regional integration.
On cultural connectivity, he said that there is an urgent need to encourage increased cultural contacts and trade exchanges between young Pakistanis and Vietnam for a sustainable, long-term bilateral partnership.
He also hailed Gandhara Corridor Project as a major vehicle of regional connectivity.
Highlighting the potential of cultural tourism, ambassador said tourism is symbol of the shared Gandhara heritage, and could attract Vietnam tourists. Similarly, he said that Pakistan’s ancient cities like Taxila, Peshawar, and Swat are historic cities which could attract Buddhist tourists from ASEAN. He emphasized that bilateral tourism promotion could generate multiple opportunities for mutual cooperation.
In his concluding remarks, ambassador expressed his country’s commitment to promoting Pak-Vietnam partnership in trade, education, IT, tourism, science and technology.
Also, the ambassador expressed his deep appreciation for the NUST knowledge ecosystem and identified higher education cooperation, IT technology and S&T collaboration as a win-win priority area where rapid mutual gains could be mad
