Argentina is known to be changing its mindset in economic development, with a new focus laid on expanding trade and investment. Could you elaborate on this?

Marcos A. Bednarski, Argentine Ambassador to Vietnam

At the end of 2023, Dr. Javier Milei took office as President of Argentina, beginning a very positive period for the Argentine economy, with a strong commitment to stabilising macroeconomic variables and effectively controlling public spending.

Phrases like deregulation, the opening of the economy, and international integration are part of the vocabulary that accompanies our society, which has become aware of the need for profound changes that will finally allow Argentina to emerge from the lethargy that has marked its economic development in recent years.

Foreign purchases have been facilitated, procedures have been made more flexible, import tariffs have been lowered, among many other measures taken with the aim of creating a more dynamic business environment and, above all, providing greater predictability to economic activities.

In the first quarter of 2025, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census, the Argentine economy grew 5.8 per cent compared to the same period in 2024, investment grew 31.8 per cent, and private consumption 11.6 per cent. Exports increased 7.2 per cent and imports 42.8 per cent.

That growth in investment refers to gross fixed capital formation, driven by the acquisition of machinery and equipment, which grew 48.9 per cent, and transportation, which increased 74.7 per cent, with a predominance of imported goods.

This is a clear sign of a restructuring of productive capital, within the framework of strategic decision-making at the corporate level, which is betting on a more stable and expanding economy in the future.

As for the import figures, imports benefit the Argentine industrial sector by lowering the cost of capital goods and, consequently, allowing for improved business productivity. To give a few examples: in April, imports totalled $6.46 billion. Imports of machinery and tools increased by 73 per cent, consumer goods by 78 per cent, and passenger motor vehicles by 204 per cent.

How important is the Vietnamese market to Argentine companies and investors?

Vietnam is an important partner for Argentina. It is the third-largest regionally, after China and India, and the seventh-largest globally.

Proof of the importance our country places on this market is the inauguration of a specialised office for the agriculture and industrial sectors at the Argentine Embassy in Hanoi on July 1.

Office head Dr. Alonso Pablo Ferrando has a very active agenda ahead of him, and we hope the Vietnamese authorities will join us in this new phase, which we hope to bring greater dynamism to related cooperation, to negotiations to open markets for new products, and to the diversification of our bilateral trade.

Vietnam is considered an important market for Argentine companies and investors. In 2010, the two countries established a comprehensive partnership, creating favourable conditions for their bilateral trade to exceed $4 billion by 2024.

In the first five months of this year, Vietnamese exports to Argentina grew by 243.6 per cent compared to the same period in 2024. Some items grew exponentially: mobile phones and their parts grew by 636 per cent; footwear by 146 per cent.

According to statistics from the Vietnam Customs, Argentine exports grew by 30.8 per cent in the period from January to May 2025. Overall bilateral trade increased by 67 per cent.

I’ll give you a concrete example of how the current economic policy has directly impacted our bilateral relationship. A few weeks ago, the first shipment of products manufactured by Viettel arrived at the port of Buenos Aires: 560km of fiber optic cables and 500 modems that will be used to improve telecommunications. This is the beginning of a new process.

What are your expectations for Vietnam-Argentine trade cooperation?

The outlook will continue to be bright. The evolution of Argentine exports, with a significant surplus for our country, are heavily concentrated in a few sectors, primarily livestock feed.

I like to emphasise in the various meetings I hold that the greater the surplus for Argentina, the more the Vietnamese economy benefits, and I give an example: we supply you with raw hides, which are processed here by Vietnamese labour and serve as input for Vietnamese industry. You produce the shoes and then sell them to us. This is one of several examples we could give using the same scheme.

We are facing a world with many uncertainties, with challenges in terms of production and consumption patterns. We are separated by 17,000km, but despite this, we have found a way for our bilateral trade to continue growing.

In 2025, we will celebrate 52 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations. I personally believe these have been successful years of growth, cooperation, and mutual understanding, as is appropriate between complementary economies.

We are at the beginning of a new era, highly promising based on the data. The new measures our country is implementing will generate structural changes for economic actors and enable new business and investment opportunities.