Ambassador Nguyen Tien Phong expects Pak-Vietnam trade value to reach $1 billion

Islamabad: Ambassador of Vietnam to Pakistan Nguyen Tien Phong on Thursday expressed the hope that the annual trade volume between Pakistan and Vietnam was likely to reach $1 billion by the end of 2023.

He said that the current annual trade volume between Pakistan and Vietnam was $ 800 million, which can be easily increased to $ 1 billion by the end of next year by developing it in more potential sectors.

The Ambassador said this while addressing the roundtable on “Vietnam-Pakistan economic and trade ties to realize prospects” hosted by the Center of Pakistan and International Relations (COPAIR), said a press release issued by the Center.

The Ambassador said that the two countries had extensive economic and commercial cooperation in the textile, leather, surgical, fabric, and tourism sectors.

He said that Vietnam was importing many products including cotton yarn, medicines, surgical instruments, leather products, fabrics, chemicals, meat and mutton products, pet food, fertilizer and Pakistan should enhance exports of these products to Vietnam to take the bilateral trade to over $1 billion.

He said that Pakistan has a talented workforce in the IT and software field and Vietnam has good demand for these professionals, so Pakistan can increase the export of its IT manpower to Vietnam.

The Ambassador said that the diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Pakistan resumed in 1972 when both countries were suffering from a crisis and during this time, the countries promoted the relations by promoting mutual trust.

He said that the two countries have supported each other at international forums during this time and strong diplomatic, economic, and trade relations have progressed further.

Nguyen Tien Phong said that Pakistan was a country with a large population whose influence was extended not only to South Asia but also to the Pacific.

He said that there was a framework for promoting mutual economic and trade relations between Pakistan and Vietnam.

The Ambassador was of the view that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in which ASEAN plays an important role has huge potential for ASEAN and Pakistan’s economic, trade, and investment to reach a new high level with the shift in paradigm from geopolitics to geo-economic in Pakistan.