Sri Lanka, Vietnam to achieve $ 1 b trade
- Inks first trade minutes in Colombo
- Bathiudeen and Vuong say talks successful
- Private sectors of both sides to lead new drive
- Products at play: Apparel, rubber
- ‘Let’s move for $ 1 b trade’: Vuong
In a bid to quadruple bilateral trade to $ 1 billion, Sri Lanka and Vietnam signed the minutes of the first successful meeting of the Subcommittee on Trade of the Vietnam-Lanka Joint Commission on 26 March in Colombo.
“At present we are far below our trade potential in comparison to the future target of $ 1 billion in bilateral trade. At this meeting we formulated the directions of future trade and investment cooperation,” said Industry and Trade Vice Minister Hoang Quoc Vuong while speaking at the event.
Vice Minister Vuong was leading the eight-member Vietnamese team while Department of Commerce Director General R.D.S Kumararatne was in charge of the Lankan team.
Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen and Vietnam Ambassador to Sri Lanka Phan Kieu Thu joined the event’s evening session to witness the signing of the agreed minutes by Industry and Commerce Ministry Secretary S.S. Miyanawala and Vietnam Industry and Trade Ministry Kran Kuang Huy (Director General of the South West Asia and Africa Department of Hanoi).
“At today’s successful meeting we formulated the directions of future trade and investment cooperation. We are a one-party communist state but are now following market economic policies with greater enlistment of our private firms and as a result, in this effort, we are moving our private sector for this,” said Vice Minister Vuong.
Vietnam is the third fastest growing economy in ASEAN, followed by Indonesia and Philippines.
According to Sri Lanka’s Department of Commerce, bilateral trade between the two countries has been increasing steadily. Total trade increased by 88% to $ 224 million in 2013 from $ 120 million in 2012. It increased by 17% to $ 271 million in 2014. Interestingly, the growth was driven by the increase of Lankan exports to the 90 million market of Vietnam, a huge 84% rise in 2014 to $ 79 million from $ 43 million in 2013. In 2013, 10% of Lanka’s exports to Vietnam were natural rubber while apparel exports stood at 2%.
“Today I am pleased by the success of the first meeting of the Subcommittee on Trade under the Vietnam-Lanka Joint Commission. Today’s successful discussions have identified apparel, rubber, coconut, chemical, footwear and leather, rice and agro-machineries as promising products for future bilateral cooperation,” said Minister Bathiudeen.
Sri Lanka, Vietnam…
He added that Sri Lanka had requested concessionary actions from Vietnam and since there were no trade agreements between both countries at present, Vietnam had consented to commence a study on its side to identify Lankan items that could receive such concessions.
“A trade agreement can help in this regard. Both countries are well-known producers of rubber and apparel in the world, so they can join together and discover win-win trade outcomes. The overall thrust is the engagement of private sector players from both sides to move the process of bilateral trade expansion forward,” he said.
Since 1978, almost 10 agreements and MoUs have been signed between Sri Lanka and Vietnam in trade, civil aviation, economic, scientific, cultural and technical cooperation. The MoU on oil and gas cooperation is between the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s Secretary’s office.
