The economic, trade and investment relations between Vietnam and Norway have reaped positive outcomes in recent time, according to Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh (Photo: VNA)

Norway is one of the economic and trade partners of Vietnam in the North European region, he said in a recent interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s visit to Norway from May 24-26.

Two-way trade exceeded 400 million USD in 2018, representing a year-on-year rise of 13.67 percent, he said, adding that Vietnam mainly exported garment-textile, footwear, cashew nut, and wood and timber products while importing aquatic products, machinery, equipment, and other spare parts from the market.

According to Statistics Norway, Vietnam, the Philippines and China are the three Asian countries that have maintained stable export growth in the North European nation.

In the first four months of 2019, trade between Vietnam and Norway surpassed 150 million USD, up 14.4 percent year-on-year.

As of April 2019, Norway had 42 direct investment projects in Vietnam with total registered capital of nearly 164 million USD, ranking 41st among the 131 countries and territories investing in Vietnam.

Minister Anh suggested encouraging Norwegian businesses to partner with Vietnamese firms in the fields of maritime, shipbuilding, aquaculture, renewable energy, and tourism.

At present, Norwegian enterprises are particularly interested in cooperation in developing aquaculture and processing aquatic products in Vietnam, he said.

They are also interested in renewable energy, oil and gas production projects, he added.

To boost goods exports to Norway, the Minister advised local businesses to focus on improving the quality of products and studying the market to address trade and technical barriers as well as meet strict requirements on the traceability of products, social responsibility, environmental protection, and business ethics.

He also suggested increasing meetings with distributors and large-scale supermarkets to set up long-term partnerships and promote the export of Vietnamese goods.