The event was co-organised by the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry, aiming to connect the business communities in the two ASEAN countries.
Tran Quoc Khanh, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, said that the friendship and economic, trade and investment relations between Vietnam and the Philippines have achieved positive growth results, with the bilateral trade turnover in 2017 reaching US$4 billion, up 22% over 2016. In the first five months of 2018, the figure was at US$1.77 billion, up 15.5% over the same period last year.
Currently, Vietnam and the Philippines are each other’s fifth largest trading partners in ASEAN. Especially, since the beginning of the year, the Philippines has invested US$328 million in Vietnam, ranking 35/126 countries and territories investing in the Indochina nation.
However, according to Khanh, although the economic cooperation between both sides has grown steadily over the past few years it is yet to match the potential.
Their import and export structure can complement to each other, while they are also members of ASEAN. For that reason, the two countries have more opportunities to improve the efficiency in their economic and trade cooperation activities, Khanh stressed, adding that the Vietnamese Government is deploying a number of specific measures to improve the business environment, enhance national competitiveness and create favourable conditions for foreign businesses and investors to operate in the country.
Philippines Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Ceferino Rodolfo said that Vietnam is one of the fastest growing markets and one of the most attractive destinations for businesses and investors in Southeast Asia.
Affirming that Vietnam and the Philippines still have great potential for trade and investment development, which can turn into opportunities for the success of both sides, Rodolfo revealed that Philippine businesses consider Vietnam as a potential market with advantages from a large population and increased demand for goods consumption, especially for high quality food and personal care products.
At the event, nearly 20 Philippine businesses operating in the fields of food, consumer goods and automobile manufacturing exchanged information and sought cooperation opportunities with nearly 100 Vietnamese businesses.
