An agreement on the establishment of the Joint Commission on economic cooperation amid the COVID-19 pandemic period was signed on June 30 between the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. 

An agreement on the establishment of the Joint Commission on economic cooperation amid the COVID-19 pandemic period is signed between the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, June 30, 2020. 

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong and Undersecretary of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Manlio Di Stefano agreed to organize a videoconference on exchanging contents related to economic cooperation to soon recover their countries’ economy in the post-COVID-19 period. 

Both sides exchanged and reviewed contents on economic and trade cooperation, particularly in the spheres of energy, agriculture, garment and footwear, highlighting positive developments in the two nations’ relations over the recent years. 

The establishment of the Joint Commission will help the two sides to maintain high-ranking cooperative mechanism and boost the bilateral trade value to achieve an annual growth of 15-20%. 

The Joint Commission is expected to create a solid framework for orienting and enhancing the bilateral cooperation as well as making the best use of advantages stemming from the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement. 

According to the statistics of the Viet Nam Customs, in 2019, the two-way trade value exceeded US$5.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.71%. Viet Nam’s exports and imports hit US$3.44 billion and US$1.87 billion, up 18.46% and 5.94%, respectively. 

In the first five months of 2020, due to consequences of COVID-19, the bilateral trade value witnessed a year-on-year decrease of 22.53%, only reaching US$1.77 billion.