The Vietnam-China online import-export trade conference took place between April 21 and April 23 in China's Guangxi amid the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic negatively affecting both global and regional supply chains.

Consul General Hoang Ngoc Vinh (right) attends the Vietnam-China online
trade conference in Guangxi (Photo: Vietnam Consulate General in Nanning)

The event, co-hosted by the Guangxi Department of Commerce alongside the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, brought together 34 Vietnamese enterprises and 54 of their counterparts from Guangxi.

A range of seminars were also held as part of the event which focused on transactions for agricultural products, food supplies, and discussed export businesses with over 170 direct exchanges taking place through online applications.

Most notably, an array of contracts worth approximately US$88 million of fruit and food products were signed during the course of the conference.

Upon addressing the conference, the Vietnamese Consul General in Nanning (Guangxi) Hoang Ngoc Vinh stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a negative impact on the economic and trading relations that exist between both sides, including Guangxi and Vietnamese localities.

But thanks to drastic measures implemented by the two respective governments, together with the attention and direction of leaders and relevant agencies, import-export turnover between the two sides has enjoyed a surge of 18%, higher than the 11.9% increase seen by the entire ASEAN bloc with China.

Chiang Lien Sinh, director of the Guangxi Department of Commerce, emphasised that Vietnam has consistently been the largest trading partner of Guangxi for the previous 21 consecutive years.

Sinh therefore expects Guangxi and Vietnam to look to strengthen co-operation based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2019 as a means of promoting the consumption of agricultural products and fruits from 10 northern Vietnamese provinces.

He suggested that both sides strive to build an effective and safe online platform which can allow businesses to co-ordinate in a similar event in May.