The volume of trade exchange between Egypt and Vietnam in 2017 rose to $377 million, compared to $266 million in 2016, which represents an increase of 41.7 percent, Head of the Trade Agreements Sector at the Ministry of Trade and Industry Saeed Abdullah announced on Sunday.
He made the remarks on the sidelines of the first session of the subcommittee meetings on trade and industrial affairs between Egypt and Vietnam, with the participation of a large group of representatives from various Egyptian ministries and bodies concerned.
In a statement released by the trade ministry, Abdullah said Egyptian exports to the Vietnamese market included tanned leathers, spare parts and crustaceans.
Meanwhile, Egyptian imports from Vietnam were rubber tires, electrical appliances, coconut, cashews, synthetic fabrics, cotton threads, tea, coffee, dried pepper and frozen fish, he added.
The meetings, also, touched on the recent visit of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to the Asian country, which greatly contributed to boosting bilateral economic cooperation and increasing the trade exchange, he noted.
“The governments of Egypt and Vietnam should exert more efforts to encourage businessmen from the two states to enhance the volume of trade exchange with regard to value-added goods, in addition to boosting cooperation in the field of manufacturing,’ he said.
The committee reviewed ways of bolstering bilateral cooperation in the areas of information exchange and agricultural and fishery products, he added.
The two sides discussed the possibility for strengthening bilateral cooperation in the domains of customs, capacity- building, as well as the exchange of knowledge and expertise in the fields of technology, innovation, science, entrepreneurship, incentives for research and development.
For his part, the Vietnamese deputy minister of trade and industry asserted his country’s keenness to cement economic and trade ties with Egypt as being one of the most important countries in the Middle East and Africa.
At the end of the meetings, a cooperation protocol on the first session of the subcommittee on trade and industrial affairs was signed.
The two sides inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the organization of exhibitions.
By MENA, first posted on egypttoday.com