Vietnam has shown its leadership qualities by vowing to further
intensify trade and investment cooperation between ASEAN and the EU.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung
told the third ASEAN-EU Business Summit late last week in Hanoi that “Vietnam,
as a coordinator of the economic cooperation between ASEAN and EU, wholly
supports the boosting of investment and trade cooperation between the two
regions, so that such cooperation can be further enhanced effectively.”
“Together with its progress in
building the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015, ASEAN has been especially
deepening its relationship with partners, of which the EU is a very important
one. The two regions’ investment and trade cooperation has increasingly been
expanded,” Dung said.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry
and Trade reported trade between ASEAN and the EU increased 12.6 per cent and
totaled $234.8 billion in 2011when in particular, the EU’s investment into
ASEAN increased 7.2 per cent, hitting $18.2 billion. In 2012, the EU was
ASEAN’s second largest trading partner and biggest source of foreign direct
investment. Meanwhile, ASEAN remains the EU’s third largest trade partner.
Dung said the establishment of
the AEC would help attract more EU foreign direct investment. It “will create
more investment inflows and enable more convenient commercial exchanges for
enterprises to perform better in ASEAN’s market of 600 million people.”
European Commissioner for Trade
Karel De Gucht said foreign investors preferred a united market like ASEAN,
thanks to the AEC, which would display shared favourable investment and trade
incentives, rather than into individual nations with different policies.
As for Vietnam, Dung stressed it
pledged to further step up intra-ASEAN cooperation and ties between ASEAN and
its partners. “Vietnam has always been an active and responsible member in
constructing a sturdy ASEAN bloc. ASEAN has and will continue being an
important pillar in Vietnam’s international integration policy.”
“In 2013, Vietnam together with
other ASEAN member states and the bloc’s partners will build an ASEAN community
with solidarity and prosperity with the theme ‘People, we stand side-by-side
for our future’,” he said.
He said Vietnam would continue
offering ASEAN and EU enterprises favourable business incentives.
The EU is Vietnam’s second
largest trading partner and top exporting market. In 2012, two-way trade
turnover between Vietnam and the EU reached $29.1 billion. Particularly,
exports to the EU totaled $20.3 billion and imports from the EU reached $8.8
billion.
The EU is also Vietnam’s biggest
foreign investor, with 1,781 projects by late October 2012, and with total
registered capital of $33.4 billion.
Meanwhile, ASEAN imports 15.1 per
cent of Vietnam’s exports and is the country’s third largest export market. In this
year’s first two months, Vietnam raked in $2.7 billion from exporting goods to
ASEAN, up 23 per cent on-year. Last year’s figure was $17.3 billion, up 27.8
per cent on-year.
ASEAN is also Vietnam’s second
largest import market, with $2.9 billion worth of goods imported during this
year’s first two months, down 6.3 per cent on-year. The country last year spent
$21 billion importing goods from ASEAN and this figure increased 0.3 per cent
and occupied 18.3 per cent of the country’s total import turnover.
Thanh Thu | vir.com.vn
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