Vietnam and the UK have agreed to strengthen their businesses cooperation through a series of trade and investment promotion activities.
A cooperative agreement was signed by Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Trade Promotion Department Do Thang Hai and the UK Department for International Development’s Minister of State, Gareth Thomas, in Hanoi on Jan. 19.
The two sides agreed to share information regarding market, economic and trade policies while speeding up the implementation of trade and investment promotion activities such as the organisation of fact-finding tours, exhibitions and fairs.
The agreement also covers activities to work towards the removal of trade and investment barriers between the two sides, including those within the framework of the Vietnam-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (Jetco).
According to the Trade Promotion Department, trade and investment relations between Vietnam and the UK have developed steadily over recent years. The UK ’s provision of aid to Vietnam totaled 274 million USD between 2000 and 2008.
Vietnam is also named in a list of 16 countries that are prioritised for investment by the UK .
During 2008, two-way trade between the UK and Vietnam exceeded 1.1 billion GBP (1.76 billion USD), representing a 16.2 percent increase against the previous year. Vietnam ’s export turnover to the UK stood at more than 954 million GBP while its import turnover was 204 million GBP.