VCCI President Vu Tien Loc on March 20 had meetings at VCCI office with Mr Ahmet Akif Oktay, Ambassador of Turkey, and Mr Mayerfas, Ambassador of Indonesia to Vietnam with the aim of exchanging views, supporting trade promotion activities and further boosting business relations between Vietnam and these countries.
According to Dr Loc, the two countries see many potential and advantages thanks to the good political and economic cooperation and same cultural characteristics. However, trade turnovers with these countries have remained modest due to lacks of market information and business matching activities, and poor operation of trade promotions.
During the talks with the ambassadors, VCCI President is committed to supporting enterprises of these countries in doing business with Vietnam, and to increase more trade promotion activities such as trade missions, seminars and conferences, business forums, and information sharing.
Vietnam, Turkey targets trade value of US$5 bln over the next three years
During the talk, the newly-appointed ambassador of Turkey to Vietnam, Mr Ahmet Akif Oktay, was eager to inform to VCCI President that his first priority during his term of office in Vietnam is to increase the bilateral trade between Vietnam and Turkey from around US$1 billion in 2011 to US$2 billion this year and to US$5 billion over the next three years.
There is huge potential for booming trade between Vietnam and Turkey, especially for agricultural and handicraft products from Vietnam to Turkey, and industrial products from Turkey to Vietnam.
The ambassador mentioned that many business people recently prepared to visit Vietnam for business, but their visa applications were rejected by some urgent reasons. Therefore, he proposed VCCI’s support in reporting to the Vietnamese Government and relevant State agencies to improve visa procedures for Turkish business people to Vietnam. Dr. Loc pledged with the ambassador to help solve the issue in order to partly speed up the two countries’ trade value.
Mr Ahmet Akif Oktay remarked that Vietnam’s Prime Minister will pay an official visit to Turkey later this year, and right after having the exact time of the visit, he will try to do the best arrangements for the visit’s success.
Vietnam-Turkey Business Council was set up in 2009, however, it has not attracted many enterprises of the two countries to join, said Dr Loc. He also urged the ambassador’s support in improving activities of the council to become more practical and useful for members.
More Indonesian companies are interested in Vietnamese market
Thanks to high economic growth and potential market, Vietnam is attracting many Indonesia companies to come, especially in the fields of cement, mining, oil and gas, power plants, pharmaceuticals and medicine, confectionery, and consumer goods, said Mr Mayerfas.
Despite same cultural identities and geographic position, few enterprises of Vietnam and Indonesia have known each other. Therefore, he really wanted VCCI to help organize seminars and business matching activities in Vietnam in the coming time for enterprises of the two countries to seek business opportunities and cooperate.
Dr Loc was ready to support the embassy to arrange business meetings and seminars to receive the trade missions from Indonesia to Vietnam, and also mentioned to the possibility to organize Vietnam-Indonesia Business Forum in the near future.
Being reported that Indonesia has maintained a high economic growth in recent years, particularly a growth rate of 6.7 percent in 2011 and a low inflation rate of only 5 percent, Dr Loc showed his interest in learning more experience from Indonesia in economic management.
Nam Pham
Vietnamese
