A roundtable discussing how to promote investment and trade cooperation between Vietnam and India took place in Ho Chi Minh City on June 26.
Co-organised by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and INVEST INDIA, the event attracted the participation of both sides’ enterprises operating in food processing, aquatic products, automobile spare parts, logistics services, infrastructure development, energy, chemical and telecommunications.
Speaking at the conference, Le Thai Hoa, deputy head of the Department of Southwest Asia and Africa Markets under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) underlined the huge potential for Vietnam-India cooperation, especially in trade, industry and energy.
The signed ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement will help foster economic and investment ties between the two countries, he said, stressing the need for the active role of the two side’s business communities in taking advantage of such agreement.
According to Talleen Kumar, head of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Indian Government in recent years has taken numerous reforms to speed up the country’s international integration process and attract more foreign investment.
He said that foreign investors, who want to invest in India , will be guided to implement licensing, trademark registering procedures via the Internet.
According to MoIT, India is now one of Vietnam’s 10 largest trade partners, with two-way trade reaching 2.24 billion USD in the first five months of this year. The figure is expected to hit 7 billion USD by 2015.
By April, 2013, India had 70 on-going projects in Vietnam with a total investment of 252 million USD.