Mercosur businessmen to visit Vietnam

A delegation of officials and businessmen from member countries of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) will visit Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia from October 10-23, President of the Mercosur-ASEAN Chamber of Commerce Rodolfo Caffaro Kramer announced on October 8.

Besides Kramer himself, the delegation will include Uruguayan Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa, and Director of Paraguayan Foreign Ministry’s External Commerce and Investment Department Luis Ramiro Bianchi, along with business representatives from Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Representatives from the Vietnamese Embassy in Argentina (Photo: Vietnam+)

Kramer told a Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Buenos Aires that the delegation will hold working sessions with Vietnamese partners to discuss promotion of bilateral trade and investment.

The Mercosur – ASEAN Chamber of Commerce made its debut in Uruguay in June last year.

The opening of a representative office of the Mercosur – ASEAN Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi nearly one year ago has significantly contributed to trade exchange between Mercosur member states and Vietnam, Kramer said.

According to him, Argentine businesses are interested in importing Vietnamese coffee.

He also underlined the importance of the ASEAN market. With the birth of the ASEAN Economic Community on December 31, 2015, ASEAN currently boasts a 630 million-market with a GDP of more than 2.6 trillion USD, or 7 percent of the world’s total. It is also the world’s most vibrant economy.

Established in 1991, Mercosur currently groups Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and Paraguay.

As the fifth largest economic bloc of the world and one of the top manufacturers of food, materials and energy, Mercosur has a market of 275 million consumers, 3.3 trillion USD worth of GDP, accounting for 83 percent of the South America’s total. Annual trade within the bloc comes close to 62 billion USD each year.