On the occasion of the 45th anniversary of Vietnam – India diplomatic relations and 10 years of strategic cooperation between the two countries, Mr P. Harish, Ambassador of India to Vietnam said that the two countries’ cooperation is very nice, many Indian businesses are considering Vietnam as a new investment destination in the region and choose to set up business in Vietnam.
India and Vietnam relationship have been developing very strongly since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1972. The two countries advanced their relationship into strategic partnership in 2007 and then became comprehensive strategy in September 2016, when the Prime Minister of India visited Vietnam. This cooperation framework includes security, defense, economic and cultural cooperation, high-level delegation exchanges and people-to-people exchanges.
In terms of trade, bilateral trade has increased tenfold, from 1.15 billion USD in fiscal year 2006 – 2007, to 10.1 billion USD in fiscal year 2016 – 2017 (according to Indian data). The two countries’ leaders have set a bilateral trade target of 15 billion USD by 2020. India is among the top 10 trading partners of Vietnam and Vietnam is India’s fifth largest trading partner in ASEAN region.
Regarding investment, Vietnam currently has 136 Indian projects, with a total registered capital of about 1.28 billion USD, including capital from India through third countries, mainly focusing on areas as oil and gas, renewable energy, minerals, agricultural product processing, information technology and automotive components. The latest project of India in Vietnam is the instant coffee processing project of Tata Coffee Company in Binh Duong province, with a total registered capital of 63 million USD.
In order to achieve this goal, Vietnam and India need to work more closely in strengthening the exchange of business delegations and encouraging investment in one another, to promote trade.
In addition, Vietnam and India are expected to strengthen connectivity in aviation and sea line. Expected this year, Vietjet will open direct flights to India. Furthermore, linkage in the banking and finance sectors is also accelerating. Also, India has also strengthened its projects in Vietnam in the areas of human resource development, IT capacity building, English language teaching and science and technology.
With such a multidisciplinary approach, we can realize a comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries and explore the potentials of two nations.
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