Recently, at the headquarter of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in Hanoi, Dr Vu Tien Loc, VCCI President had a meeting with Mr Nicolas D.Kanellos, Greek Ambassador to Vietnam.
At the meeting, Dr Loc appreciated the friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries in all fields, especially the economic sector being increasingly consolidated and developed. However, the two sides have not exploited available possibilities so Dr Loc said the two sides should establish specific mechanisms to promote effective cooperation in areas of mutual interest such as trade, maritime, tourism, etc.
Ambassador Nicolas D.Kanellos wished that Vietnam - Greece will have more cooperative programme of socio-economic development, implement support programmes to create favourable conditions for businesses of the two countries. In the future, the Minister of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs of Greece will have missions in Vietnam and some Asian countries. Therefore, the Greek Ambassador proposed collaboration with VCCI to organise Vietnam-Greece Business Forum aimed to create opportunities for businesses of both sides to meet and seek opportunities for investment cooperation and economic development.
Agreeing with the proposal by the Ambassador of Greece, Dr Loc said that to organise Vietnam-Greece Business Forum successfully, both sides need to build specific content as well as a long-term plan to promote the development of economic and trade for both countries.
According to the assessment, the potential development of bilateral trade relations between Vietnam and Greece is very huge. Greek businesses should be interested in further development of trade with Vietnam, especially imports of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, coffee, textiles, electronics products from Vietnam.
According to statistics, Vietnam – Greece turnover from 2001 to 2006 averaged more than US$200 million and increased rapidly in recent years. In 2008 it reached US$131 million, up US$43 million compared with 2007. Overall in 2014, bilateral trade reached US$207.55 million, a slight increase of 1.3 percent compared with 2013.
In January 2015, exports of goods from Vietnam to the Greek market worth US$14.79 million, down 7.35 percent compared to the same period last year.
Vietnam exports to Greece mainly telephones and accessories; footwear; coffee; seafood; wood and wood products; vehicles and spare parts; textiles; iron and steel products and cashew nuts, etc of which, the biggest export value comes from telephones and accessories; followed by footwear.
Textile exports had the strongest growth while export of timber and timber products also has high growth rate.
The decline in export commodity is coffee, vehicles and parts, iron and steel products, cashew nuts.
Quynh Chi
Vietnamese
