A Vietnam-Czech Republic trade promotion seminar was held in Prague, the Czech Republic on November 28 to help enterprises from both sides seek investment and cooperation opportunities, contributing to promoting their bilateral economic and trade partnership.

An overview of the seminar 

Attending the event were Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong, Ambassador to the Czech Republic Ho Minh Tuan and Vice President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce Borivoj Minar, who lauded the growth of traditional friendship between the two countries thanks to regular visits of leaders from both sides.

They agreed that the sound bilateral political-diplomatic relationship provides a firm foundation for the partnership between the two countries, especially in economy and trade.

In recent year, the two sides have enjoyed double-digit expansion in two-way trade, which reached nearly 1.2 billion USD in 2018 and 900 million USD in the first nine months of 2019.

However, they said they are yet to reach their potential.

Ambassador Tuan said that along with the signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, the organization of activities to connect businesses will help promote trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.

Deputy Minister Vuong said that the two governments have approved an inter-governmental committee to facilitate collaboration between Vietnamese and Czech businesses. He stressed the need to hold more activities to connect the two business communities.

He said that Vietnam, with an economic scale of over 300 billion USD and growth of about 7 percent annually, has abundant potential for cooperation with foreign investors, adding that the country can become a gateway for the Czech Republic to access the 600-million-strong ASEAN market. Currently, Vietnam has signed 13 free trade agreements.

Meanwhile, Vice President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce Borivoj Minar underlined the need for more activities to connect businesses and explore more cooperation opportunities in industry and services.

The Czech side is ready to send business delegations to Vietnam to seek partnerships, said Minar.

Hoang Dinh Thang, President of the Vietnamese Association in Europe said that the Vietnamese community and businesses in the Czech Republic are willing to help link businesses of the two countries and increase exports of Vietnam to the Czech Republic.

Speaking to Vietnam News Agency correspondents in the Czech Republic, Vuong and Minar highlighted the significance of the EVFTA in promoting the Vietnam-Czech partnership in the future. Once become effective, the deal will bring about more opportunities for EU businesses to invest in Vietnam, while erasing taxes for 85 percent of the Czech Republic’s goods exported to Vietnam.