Nguyen Thi Hoang Thuy, Head of the Vietnam Trade Office in Sweden, recently shared with the press that over the past years, Vietnam-Sweden trade relations have developed relatively stable in terms of both growth rate and product types. Since the Vietnam-European Union Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) officially took effect, more trade and connection opportunities have opened for Vietnamese and Swedish businesses.

The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) has generated positive results, according to Dr. Daniel Müller. (Photo: VNA)

Thuy stressed that EVFTA will continue to be an important driving force to support bilateral trade between the two markets. In the long term, most of Vietnam's exports to the Swedish market still have potential when the market share of Vietnam's goods still accounts for a low proportion of the country's total imports.

However, many difficulties remained, especially in terms of geographical distance. The two countries do not have direct flights from Vietnam or cooperation in seaports and airports.

While being a small market, with a population of more than 10 million people, Sweden has high requirements for domestic consumer goods, so businesses mainly import goods from distributors in the center of the EU.

Thuy said that Swedish consumers are very concerned about food safety and environmental protection.

"Products exported to this market will have to ensure standards of sustainability and environmental protection. For food, consumers are increasingly inclined to consume organic food. By 2030, the consumption of organic food in this country is forecasted to increase 3 times compared to the current one. This is an opportunity for organic food production sectors in Vietnam to penetrate this potential market," said the diplomat.

Earlier this year, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Sinh Nhat Tan had a meeting with the State Secretary, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Development of Sweden International Cooperation to discuss how to create the most favorable conditions for mutual investment activities of the two countries, thereby creating opportunities to increase investment cooperation, especially in the fields of industry, digital transformation, etc.

From the beginning of 2024, the Vietnam Trade Office in Sweden has also implemented a series of trade promotion activities. The goal of promoting bilateral trade turnover, the focus is on taking advantage of community forces to bring Vietnamese goods into the local distribution system.

In the coming time, the focus will be promoting cooperation between the two countries in the fields of politics - foreign affairs, trade - investment and science - technology.

Another focus is to coordinate with the authorities of Sweden and Vietnam to create more favorable conditions for Swedish businesses to invest in Vietnam, especially in the fields of green transformation, digital transformation, energy transformation, infrastructure construction, environment. The goal is not only to strengthen import and export activities of goods between the two countries but also to create opportunities for Vietnamese high-skilled workers to work in Sweden.

Also, there will be active promotion initiatives for the establishment of direct flight routes and sea transport routes directly connecting the two countries.

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Sweden, these are the effort to actively coordinate with relevant agencies of the two sides to research and advise to upgrade the cooperation between the two countries to a new level, to meet the practical needs and interests of the people of the two countries, commensurate with the history of good traditional friendship between Vietnam and Sweden in recent years.

The diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Sweden was established in 1969. Over the past 55 years, the two countries have actively built, preserved and developed an increasingly strong bilateral relationship, going into depth and achieving many achievements.

In the 2019 – 2023 period, bilateral trade between Vietnam and Sweden recorded stability in the first 3 years and more volatile afterwards. In which, 2022 is the year of turnover reaching the highest level with US $1.62 billion, up 6.34% compared to 2021. In the first 6 months of 2024, the total bilateral trade turnover of Vietnam and Sweden reached US $695.93 million, up 10.5% over the same period last year.