Trade, cooperation – bright spot in Vietnam-China relations

Exporting goods through Mong Cai border gate, Quang Ninh province (Photo: VNA)

Economic cooperation and trade has been a bright spot in the overall relations between Vietnam and China over the past 15 years since the two countries set up their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.

China is currently Vietnam’s largest trade partner, while Vietnam is China’s biggest partner among the ASEAN countries and the fourth globally.

Statistics showed that since 2008, two-way trade has risen nine folds from 20 billion USD to nearly 180 billion USD in 2022, with Vietnam’s exports of about 58 billion USD and imports of nearly 120 billion USD.

As of October, the import-export turnover between the two countries had reached nearly 140 billion USD, with Vietnam’s exports of 50 billion USD, up 5.1%, accounting for 17% of Vietnam’s total exports.

Meanwhile, China has risen to the fourth position among the countries and territories investing in Vietnam.

According to Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, Vietnam and China share land, sea and waterway borderlines, with nearly 400km of land border crossing seven northern localities of Vietnam. This is an advantage for the two sides to promote cooperation in economy, especially border and border gate trade.

Nong Duc Lai, Trade Counselor of the Vietnamese Embassy in China, held the Vietnamese and Chinese economies have a highly supplementary level and great potential. The two sides are accelerating the opening of the market for many types of agricultural and aquatic products and food products of each other.

At the same time, they have also promoted the signing of a protocol on trade of agricultural products, while working closely together in making quarantine and customs clearance activities easier, thus opening up bright prospects for extensive cooperation in investment and trade, he said.

Hoang Minh Chien, Deputy Director of the Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, advised businesses to tap opportunities to strengthen partnership with China in a stable and sustainable manner.

However, Minister Dien held that trade between Vietnam and China has yet to match the potential of the two sides, stressing the need to upgrade the infrastructure system serving trade activities and the implementation of measures to promote economic and trade ties with China./.