Today, Viet Nam-Thailand relations are developing comprehensively across all sectors in line with the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership officially established by the two countries in May 2025, with economic cooperation standing out as a particularly bright spot.
With the goal of strengthening complementary economic connectivity, the two countries are striving to raise bilateral trade turnover from the current 22 billion USD to 25 billion USD in a balanced and sustainable manner.
Thailand is one of Viet Nam’s leading economic partners not only within ASEAN but also globally among all countries and territories, while Viet Nam is Thailand’s second-largest trading partner in the region. In terms of investment, Thailand ranks eighth among foreign investors in Viet Nam, with more than 15 billion USD invested across nearly 800 projects.
Amid growing global geopolitical and economic challenges, cooperation between Thailand and Viet Nam has remained stable and continued to develop. As two important ASEAN members, both countries play active roles in promoting regional economic development and have been working closely together to strengthen resilience and respond to external shocks affecting the region.
In recent years, Viet Nam-Thailand economic cooperation has developed substantively and with increasing depth. Leveraging their complementary advantages, the business communities of both countries are working towards jointly building Viet Nam-Thailand value chains within the ASEAN economic space.
As important links in regional and global supply chains, cooperation between the two countries can move beyond conventional trade towards joint production, processing, distribution and brand building.
Drawing on complementary strengths in agriculture, food processing, consumer goods, retail, energy, tourism and services, both sides can deepen cooperation in manufacturing, e-commerce, green standards and product traceability in order to create new products, supply chains and values bearing the ASEAN identity.
To establish a complementary economic space between Viet Nam and Thailand, leaders of the two countries have agreed on the need to promote “three connections” on production, infrastructure and transformation.
These three connections will enable Viet Nam and Thailand to move beyond ordinary market relations and become two complementary links in ASEAN’s new production, service and growth networks.
The world is entering a period of profound restructuring. Supply chains are being reorganised, while digital technology, artificial intelligence, green transition, the circular economy and energy security are reshaping the competitive advantages of nations.
According to experts, in this context Viet Nam and Thailand need to move beyond traditional bilateral cooperation thinking and jointly create a complementary economic space in which the two countries do not compete through separate paths, but instead elevate each other’s position within ASEAN value chains, strengthen ASEAN resilience and contribute together to sustainable regional growth.
Both Thailand and Viet Nam are accelerating economic reforms to create new growth drivers through high-tech industries such as semiconductors, electric vehicles, the digital economy, smart food and agriculture, the healthcare economy and clean energy.
The two countries also have strong potential for cooperation in green economy sectors, renewable energy, digital transformation, science, technology and innovation, high-tech agriculture, and enhanced transport and logistics connectivity. They are also seeking to make effective use of economic corridors in the Mekong sub-region, particularly the East-West Economic Corridor, to facilitate the movement of goods and services between the two countries and across the region.
With considerable strengths and cooperation potential, Viet Nam and Thailand are actively implementing the 2025–2030 Action Programme to concretise new strategic cooperation orientations between the two countries, while also signing the Action Programme for implementing the Viet Nam-Thailand Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for the 2026–2031 period.
In response to growing demands for greater vision, quality and practical effectiveness, the two countries are intensifying cooperation across various sectors, particularly in economy, trade and investment, in order to elevate their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to new heights.
