Attending the workshop were Vietnam Ambassador toEgypt Tran Thanh Cong, the delegation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade ofVietnam, senior representatives of EBA and many Egyptian and Vietnamese companies wishing to expand investment in the market each other's
The seminar is considered a good opportunity for businessesof the two countries to interact directly, explore opportunities andchallenges, as well as enhance business cooperation.
Speaking at theworkshop, Ambassador Tran Thanh Cong reviewed Vietnam's socio-economicdevelopment achievements over the past 30 years.
With an average economic growth rate of over 6% peryear and political stability, Vietnam is considered an attractive investmentdestination and a gateway to the Hiep's market of over 600 million people Associationof Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
According toAmbassador Tran Thanh Cong, the economic and trade cooperation between Vietnamand Egypt has been witnessing encouraging results, but still not commensuratewith the potential of each country, in which the lack of Information about eachother's market is the biggest obstacle. Therefore, trade and investmentpromotion activities will be important in providing information and bringingbusinesses of the two countries closer.
Sharing the above view, Ms. Tran Thanh Binh, Head ofthe delegation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam attended theworkshop, said that the two-way trade between Vietnam and Egypt in 2018 wasestimated at over US $ 470 million. This figure does not reflect the truepotential of bilateral trade.
The business community of the two countries is stilllacking in information, the exchange of trade delegations is limited and the number of trade promotion conferences is not much. Therefore, in the comingtime, the two countries need to resolve outstanding issues in order to furtherpromote bilateral trade relations, especially when Egypt and Vietnam both own powerful products that can penetrate each other's market.
Mr. Mohamed Youssef - CEO of EBA said that Egypt andVietnam need to overcome challenges and obstacles to be able to reach thetarget of two-way trade turnover of 1 billion USD in the near future. Notably,the slowdown of global trade flows was also a factor affecting the tradebetween Vietnam and Egypt.
According to Mr. Youssef, the most important thing isthat the business community of the two countries need to increase contact to understand each other better, thereby proceeding to expand investment and cooperation not only in the current traditional segments.
Currently, EBA is also actively supporting and connecting Egyptian businesses to seek opportunities and boost investment inVietnam market.
Also at the seminar, in addition to answering somequestions about Vietnam's commodity market, many Egyptian businesses expressedtheir desire to increase exports of goods to our country. Meanwhile, theVietnamese business side suggested that the two sides should promotecooperation in the direction of expanding more key products on the basis ofmutual benefits.
Currently, Vietnam mainly exports to Egypt productssuch as computers, electronic components, seafood, coffee and pepper; whileimporting from Egypt fertilizers, vegetables, plastic materials and textilematerials.