Recently, at the head office of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in Hanoi, Dr Doan Duy Khuong , VCCI Vice President had a meeting with Mr Arkady Salikov, Chairman of the Board of Directors and delegation of the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange, during their working visit to Vietnam from 14 to 16 July 2013.
At the meeting, Mr Arkady Salikov said that the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange can post information about Vietnamese businesses and products; Vietnamese businesses can register for transactions on the floor free of charge. Products that the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange hopes Vietnamese businesses to introduce are metal, wood and agricultural products.
Belarus also desires VCCI to introduce and offer several big Vietnamese companies/groups as well as information about the proposed project to establish joint ventures in coffee with Belarus (such as with Trung Nguyen Company and Vinacafé).
In addition, to further enhance diplomatic and economic relations, the two sides agreed to hold Vietnam-Belarus Business Forum in Minsk and the Intergovernmental Committee meeting in September 2013.
According to the statistics, two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and Belarus is relatively low. The total turnover of the two sides reached nearly US$76 million in 2009, more than US$100 million in 2010, and nearly US$200 million in 2011. In 2012, turnover fell to nearly US$170 million. Primarily Vietnam imports from Belarus products such as fertilizer, machinery, equipment, tools, spare parts, components and auto parts.
Currently, Vietnam and Belarus have signed many cooperation agreements to create a favourable legal conditions for the promotion of bilateral cooperation, such as the Agreement on Promotion and Protection of Investments (21 January 1992); Maritime Agreement (31 March 1992) Agreement on cooperation in economic, scientific and technical (20 April 1992); Trade Agreement (11 August 1992); Bilateral payment agreements between the State Bank of Vietnam and the National Bank of Malaysia (March 1993), the Agreement on Environmental Science and Technology (December 1993); Agreement on Tourism Cooperation (13 April 1994), the Agreement on Cultural Cooperation (April 1995); Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (7 September 1995) and Agreement on exemption visas for ordinary passport holders (25 September 2001). In addition, VCCI also signed a cooperation agreement with the Belarus’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1998.
Quynh Anh
Vietnamese
