The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), over the last few years, has signed cooperation agreements with a number of Italian partners namely the Rome Chamber of Commerce and Industry (May 26, 1997); Sicilian Regional Council (June 07, 2005); the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Sicily (October 31, 2005); the Napoli Chamber of Commerce (April 20, 2006); and the Senia Chamber of Commerce (November 8, 2010). These agreements are the first steps for businesses of Vietnam and Italy looking for business opportunities and investment cooperation.
In particular, it is worth mentioning a few practical activities that VCCI has collaborated on to help businesses of the two countries to meet directly, exchange information and learn about each other's markets. They include collaboration with the Embassy of Italy, Eurocham (formerly EBIC) to hold workshops: "Doing Business with the EU and Italy" in many provinces in Vietnam, namely An Giang, Can Tho, Thanh Hoa, Binh Dinh, Thai Nguyen, Dak Lak, Khanh Hoa, Binh Duong, Vinh Phuc and Hoa Binh; “International Symposium cooperation and business development among Italy-Vietnam’s SMEs”, attracting more than 200 participants.
In particular, VCCI co-organised forums and meetings between Vietnamese enterprises and a 160 person Italian business delegation to Vietnam led by the Italian Minister for Economic Development in Hanoi in November 2008. In late 2009, VCCI organized a business delegation accompanying the Sate President to visit the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of Spain and the official visit to the Republic of Slovakia. In Italy, VCCI in collaboration with the Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria) organized the Vietnam- Italy Business Forum in Rome, attracting local businesses to attend and meet with Vietnamese businesses. It can be said that Italian businesses were excited about this trip and made numerous appointments with the Vietnamese business delegation on the sidelines of the forum.
Following this success, in July 2010, VCCI organised a business delegation accompanying the Government Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung visiting the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Italy. In Italy, the VCCI in collaboration with the Association of producers and service providers of Italian Confindustria, the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade, Milan Business Association (Assolombarda) to hold Vietnam-Italy Business Forum in Milan. The Forum attracted nearly 200 companies from all regions of Italy to Milan to attend and meet Vietnamese businesses. Businesses of both sides not only had the opportunity to learn about cooperation and the business environment in the two countries, but also got to know about the success stories of major Italian corporations operating in Vietnam, namely Piaggio, Picenza and Ariston. VCCI has collaborated with the Vietnam Trade Office to organise tours of the production site of the Techint Group, one of Italy's major metallurgical corporation providing equipment for a number of metallurgical and rolling plants.
In November 2010, VCCI signed an agreement of cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce of Siena, the central area of Italy with key economic sectors of tourism and services, arts and crafts, along with agricultural products with world-renowned wine and oil. Siena has about 30,000 businesses in the region with 98 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises, including 7,000 enterprises in the handicraft industry.
Vietnam always attaches importance to business cooperation with Italian companies, especially through the typical business examples of successful Italian enterprises in Vietnam; it will be a crucial factor to attract the attention of Italian investors. Currently, the two governments are very serious about strengthening cooperation between regions and localities of the two countries and are ready to facilitate their business communities to find partners and explore investment opportunities, especially in areas such as transport infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, water and the environment; and enhance student exchanges and cooperation between universities and research centres of both sides.
In this spirit, the two sides will continue to strengthen the exchange of visits at all levels, striving to bring the two-way trade to US$3 billion in the 2012-2013 period, to increase business and investment cooperation, including in Public Private Partnership (PPP) form.
The two countries have also agreed to continue to work closely to build the Vietnam-Italy Development Cooperation Programme in the current period, focused on priority areas such as water resource management and environmental issues, especially to support small and medium enterprises and human resource training.
In particular, recently, in the framework of the programme "Vietnam Days in Italy" from 16-23 January 2013, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries and to welcome the visit of the General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and the Vietnamese senior delegation, the Italian Embassy of Vietnam in collaboration with the Confindustria, the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Planning and Investment held Vietnam - Italy Economic Cooperation Forum on 21 January in Rome.
The forum attracted public attention and was attended by more than 120 Italian businesses in the areas of energy, oil and gas, infrastructure development, textiles, footwear, seafood, furniture, banking, tourism and services.
At the forum, the sides exchanged views on the investment and business environment in Vietnam, including the strengthening of scientific and technological cooperation, cooperation in renewable energy, supporting industries in mechanical manufacturing, investment support policies in the field of high technology and technology transfer.
Mai Anh
Vietnamese
