Vietnam - Thailand: Targeting US$10 Billion Trade Turnover

 

At the exchange, Deputy Director of VCCI - Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen The Hung said Vietnam and Thailand targeted two-way turnover of US$10 billion for the coming years. Mr Hung indicated that this number was absolutely reachable. There are more and more Thai enterprises seeking opportunities for cooperation and investment. It is necessary, in Mr Hung’s opinion, for enterprises to make plans to increase cooperation; and this exchange is an opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to study and exchange experience with regional nations.

 

Director of the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (Thailand), Dr Jiraphan Skuna, noted that 26 enterprises from Northeast Thailand joined this exchange as part of the preparation of Thai small and medium enterprises for the formation of the ASEAN economic community by 2015. According to him, Vietnam is a market with political stability and huge economic potential. Therefore, in Vietnam, some Thai enterprises have successfully traded agricultural products and invested into real estate. In the future, hopefully, the two countries’ enterprises will have more meetings; thereby expanding commercial, trade and investment cooperation in other fields.

 

Thailand has had trade cooperation with Vietnam for a long time. So far, Vietnam and Thailand have signed nearly 30 conventions and agreements in many fields such as trade, investment, tourism, agriculture, forestry and fishery. According to Vietnam’s statistics, two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and Thailand has had a high growth rate for years. In 2009, the turnover was US$6.1 billion, US$1.3 billion of Vietnam exports to Thailand and US$4.8 billion of Vietnam imports from Thailand. In 2010, trade turnover between Vietnam and Thailand is estimated to increase by 21 percent, reaching US$7.5 billion, in which Vietnam’s export to Thailand increases by nearly 10 percent. At the moment, Thailand has over 230 projects in Vietnam, ranking in the top-ten countries and territories investing into Vietnam. In the ASEAN cooperation framework, many products on the exporting and importing list between two countries have aimed at a zero percent tax rate. Currently, Vietnam and Thailand are closely coordinating information exchange on exporting rice and continuing export promotion.

 

The investment capacity of Thailand enterprises into Vietnam is estimated to continuously increase as many Thai enterprises and businessmen shift their investment and expand their business in Vietnam. Big Thai corporations such as Tipco, Amata and Siam Cement Group, and Charoen Pokphand Group are promoting and expanding their investment into Vietnam. Charoen Pokpland Group will expand investment into Vietnam, focusing on agriculture, real estate and retail. Particularly, this giant corporation will spend US$150-200 million building manufacturing mills of shrimp and fish breeding, chicken meat and frozen warehouses in Vietnam. Charoen Pokpland Group plans to double their business in Vietnam in the next five years. Meanwhile, leading Thai industrial corporation Siam Cement Group is constructing an oil refining complex   in Vietnam and planning to spend at least Baht 100 billion (US$3.3 billion) to expand business in the Southeast Asian market (ASEAN) in the next five years, in which Vietnam is the investment focus. The variety of Thailand’s “giants” intensifying investment into Vietnam is an opportunity to ratchet up cooperation between Vietnam and Thailand.