The 17th meeting of the Vietnam – Romania Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation was held in Hanoi on November 21 under the chair of Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Stefan-Rady Oprea. 

At the event, the ministers expressed their delight at the fruitful relations between the two countries across various fields, of which economy – trade is an important pillar and a locomotive for the cooperative ties. 

However, they said the two-way trade revenue during the 2019-2022 period, which rose over 1.6 folds from 2019 to 425 million USD in 2022, still lagged behind the two countries’ potential and their sound traditional friendship. 

Dien and Oprea said capitalising on the cooperation frameworks such as the signed free trade agreements and the joint committee will help Vietnam and Romania promote trade turnover in the coming time. 

Dien took the occasion to thank Oprea for his support to accelerating the negotiations and signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), adding the EVFTA which took effect on August 1, 2020 has opened the door for trade activities between Vietnam and the EU and Romania in particular. 

The two ministers agreed that both sides should take advantage of the EVFTA, open markets for each other’s products, enhance exchanges of business delegations, and promote cooperation in the fields of Vietnam’s interest and Romania’s strengths such as engineering, specific-use machines, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and clean energy. 

Suggesting Romania welcome Vietnamese garment and textiles, leather shoes and agro-fishery products, Dien highlighted that Vietnam stands ready to become a bridge to enhance the economic-trade relations between Romania and ASEAN as well as the economies that Vietnam has signed free-trade deals with. 

Meanwhile, Oprea said Romania has created more favourable conditions for the import and export of the agricultural products of the two sides’ strengths, and paid due attention to promoting cooperation in science-technology, especially in AI and digital transformation. 

Romania will study Vietnam’s recommendation on establishing a working group on labour in the framework of the joint committee, he added. 

Many Romanian enterprises have expressed their interest in cooperating with Vietnam in oil and gas, electricity transmission, agriculture, IT, pharmaceuticals and tourism, he stressed, adding Romania is willing to serve as a gateway for Vietnamese products to enter other European markets. 

Both sides also reached a consensus on stepping up investments in each other to realise the commitments on sustainable and green development and environmental protection./.

Source: Vietnam Plus

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