Vietnamese Minister of the Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh made the remark while holding a reception for Slovakian Minister of Economy Peter Ziga in Ho Chi Minh City on November 25.
Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh (R) and his Slovakian Minister of Economy Peter Ziga
The robust development in bilateral ties have opened up opportunities and potentials for the two countries to step up cooperative activities for mutual benefits in economy, trade and investment, Anh said, adding that although two-way trade revenue has increased through years, it still lags behind expectations of both sides.
He underlined that Vietnamese and Slovakian enterprises are still holding great potentials to cooperate in the fields of information and technology, mining, electronics, manufacturing technology and tourism.
For his part, Ziga affirmed that Slovakia always cherishes ties with Vietnam and sees the country as a leading partner in Asia, expressing his hope that both sides will reach positive agreements during his visit, making cooperation programmes in economy and trade more effective.
He suggested that the two ministries should organise more business forums as well as trade and investment promotion conferences while asked leaders of the MoIT to support Slovakian enterprises to study the Vietnamese market.
In the past years, Vietnam and Slovakia enjoy a stable increase in two-way trade revenue. Vietnam mainly exported footwear, garments and seafood and imported machines, tools and steel spare parts from the European country.
By the end of October 2017, Slovakia had nine investment projects worth 250 million USD in Vietnam, ranking 36th out of 128 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Vietnamese IT company FPT has one investment project valued at nearly 500,000 USD in Slovakia.
Source: VNA