Vietnam, Israel step up trade cooperation

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The Vietnam-Israel online business meeting opened on November 5 in two venues in Hanoi and Tel Aviv, attracting more than 40 businesses operating in various fields such as textile and garments, footwear, fisheries, food, agricultural products and food processing, logistics, healthcare and machinery.

The event, the first of its kind, was co-organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) in conjunction with the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce.

Addressing the event, Ly Quoc Hung, head of the Africa MOIT’s Department for the Africa-West Asia, South Asia Markets said the meeting provides businesses of the two countries with a chance to get closer and grasp a better understanding on each other’s markets and demands, which would strengthen their linkage and cooperation, and contribute to boosting bilateral trade ties.

During the video conference, the organisers expressed their willingness to create favourable conditions to foster trade cooperation between the two countries, said Hung.

According to statistics, two-way trade between Vietnam and Israel has grown rapidly in the past years. In 2011, it reached 375.4 million USD and hit 320.8 million USD in the first 9 months of 2012 alone, increasing 51 percent year-on-year. Of the 2012 figure, Vietnam earned 217.7 million USD in export revenues to Israel, two fold higher than that of the same period last year.

Vietnam mainly shipped to Israel seafood, cashew-nut, coffee, footwear, garments, rice and pepper, while importing key products including fertilisers, pesticides, high-tech machinery and equipment, chemicals and medicines.

According to Hung, there are rooms for Vietnam and Israel to further cooperate, especially in food preservation, agricultural technology, telecommunications, healthcare, waste treatment and diamond manipulation.

Such meetings will help both sides strengthen their cooperation, and should be held more frequently in the future, he added.