Vietnam, India seek to foster economic, trade ties

MoIT Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Phan Thi Thang said that Vietnam and India have a lot of favourable conditions to boost their economic cooperation and trade, as both have good economic growth and stable macroeconomic environment, direct flights link their major cities, and their import-export structures are complementary.

MoIT Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Phan Thi Thang speaks at the forum

She pointed to several challenges and difficulties facing businesses, including negative impacts of world economic fluctuations, the lack of market-related information and business connectivity, and high costs and long transportation times.

To address these difficulties and promote economic and trade cooperation, Thang proposed strengthening supply chain connectivity based on the strengths of each country, and applying information technology and digital transformation in trade promotion. She also pointed to increasing direct transportation and establishing more routes between the two countries to save time, costs and take advantage of available resources.

Shantuna Srivatava, former Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce in India, emphasised that potential for bilateral cooperation has not been fully exploited. He suggested setting a goal of raising two-way trade to 20 billion USD in the coming time.