Vietnamese Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh made the statement at a workshop on India ’s Look East policy held from February 26-28 at Shillong in India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya.
He highlighted the traditional friendship between Vietnam and India, which received a boost with the singing of a strategic partnership agreement in 2007 and since then their co-operation have been developed in across-the-board fields.
India is currently one of the top 10 trade partners of Vietnam, with two-way trade surging to over US$8 billion in 2014 from US$1 billion in 2006, the ambassador said, adding that bilateral trade is expected to hit US$15 billion in 2020.
Indian investors have poured more than US$220 million in Vietnam while Vietnamese businesses invested around US$26 million in India.
In addition, nearly 20,000 Vietnamese travel to India each year, mostly to Buddhism holy sites and about 30,000 Indian tourists visit Vietnam , which is expected to be increased to 100,000 in the foreseeable future, the ambassador told the workshop.
He also underlined the sound relationship between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with a strategic partnership and a bilateral free trade agreement signed between the two sides.
Two-way trade increased rapidly from US$3 billion in 1994 to nearly US$80 billion in the 2013-2014 fiscal year. Bilateral trade is forecast to top US$100 billion in 2015 and US$200 billion in 2020, he added.
The Vietnamese Ambassador pointed to the importance of India’s North East region to the Look East policy thanks to its advantageous location in proximity to Southeast Asian countries.
To increase co-operation between India’s North East region and Southeast Asia, he proposed enhancing road and air linkages and designing specific programmes and activities to promote the North East region as an attractive investment and tourism destination.
