An online conference took place on July 9 to support Vietnamese businesses in exporting consumer goods to the Chinese market and seeking cooperation opportunities with their peers in Zhejiang province of China.

Co-organised by the Trade Promotion Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade – Hangzhou branch, the event drew the participation of nearly 50 Vietnamese and Zhejiang enterprises.

Speaking at the conference, Vu Ba Phu, Director of the Trade Promotion Department, said that in recent years, China has been continuously the largest export market of Vietnam among more than 200 countries and territories having import and export activities with the Southeast Asian country.

According to the statistics of Vietnam Customs, in the past two years, two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and China reached over US$100 billion per year.

In the first five months of this year alone, in the context of the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries promptly took many measures to maintain trade as well as implemented initiatives to promote business exchanges via online platforms, bringing bilateral trade to more than US$44.35 billion, up nearly 2% over the same period in 2019.

According to Phu, Vietnam has close and direct trade relations with many provinces and cities of China, with Zhejiang, with a population of 57 million, being its very important trading partner.

In order to support Vietnamese and Chinese enterprises to promote bilateral trade, Phu said his agency has opened a trade promotion office in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province.

This is Vietnam's second trade promotion office in China, established in 2018 after the first one in Chongqing, helping Zhejiang firms seek long-term business and investment collaboration opportunities with Vietnamese counterparts.

Sharing the view with Phu, Zheng Rongxin, head of the Chinese council’s Hangzhou branch, expressed his wish that the two sides will enhance their friendship and cooperation to maintain a mutually beneficiary trade environment.

After the conference, businesses of both sides engaged in an online trading session during which Vietnamese companies introduced Zhejiang importers to Vietnam’s high quality products such as fresh and dried fruits, aquatic products, beverages and natural rubber gloves.

The online trading session will last until July 10.