Islamabad : Ambassador of Vietnam to Pakistan Nguyen Tien Phong on Thursday expressed the hope that the annual trade volume between Pakistan and Vietnam is likely to reach $1 billion by the end of 2023.
He said that the current annual trade volume between Pakistan and Vietnam is $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 of Vietnam said this while addressing the roundtable on ‘Vietnam-Pakistan economic and trade ties to realize future prospects’ hosted by the Centre of Pakistan and International Relations (COPAIR).
The COPAIR is Islamabad-based think tank where media man, TV Anchors, and office bearers of Federation Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) attended the event held here.
The ambassador said that the two countries have extensive economic and commercial cooperation in the textile and yawn, leather, surgical, fabric and tourism sectors.
He said that the import of Vietnam’s fabrics is 34.45 billion, where Pakistan has wider opportunities and Pakistan’s exports to Vietnam in this sector are very less.
Similarly, Vietnam’s surgical equipment imports are $479 million, where Pakistan’s presence is negligible. Nguyen Tien Phong said that there are vast opportunities for trade cooperation between Vietnam and Pakistan in tourism. He said that Vietnam was importing many products including cotton yarn, medicines, surgical instruments, leather products, fabrics, chemicals, meat and mutton products, pet food, fertilizers 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 IT and software field and Vietnam has good demand for these professionals, so Pakistan can increase the export of its IT manpower to Vietnam.
As of November 30 of this year 2022, 2.85 international tourists visited Vietnam in the last eleven months, which is increasing every year. In domestic tourism, 83.6 million Vietnamese people visited different places in their country. The Vietnamese envoy said that Vietnam’s tourism has an annual potential of $20 billion, which is increasing every year. Nguyen Tien Phong said that Pakistan is a country with a large population whose influence extends not only to South Asia but also to the Pacific.
He said that the historical mutual trust and mutual confidence and cooperation in both the countries is of utmost importance in mutual relations. He said that shared property, regional connectivity and justice are the basic components of Vietnam’s foreign policy. He said that in the coming year, it is possible for the two countries to exchange the heads of state or high-profile visits, which has a strong possibility of further strengthening of mutual relations.