Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyễn Hồng Diên speaking at the opening ceremony. Photo nhandan.com.vn

BEIJING — A Vietnamese delegation led by Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyễn Hồng Diên is attending the third International Consumer Products Expo (Hainan Expo), which is being held from April 10-15 in Haikou City, Hainan Province (China).

At the opening ceremony, Diên said the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between Việt Nam and China has been developing well, bringing practical benefits to both sides.

Despite the severe effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has continuously maintained its position as the largest trading partner of Việt Nam. Việt Nam is currently also the largest trading partner in ASEAN and the sixth largest of China globally.

The trade scale between Việt Nam and China currently accounts for about a quarter of Việt Nam's total foreign trade turnover. In the overall economic and trade cooperation relationship between the two countries, Hainan has a particularly important position because the locality has a close geographical location to Việt Nam.

The Chinese Government planned it as “the world's largest free trade port” with many important preferential policies.

The minister believed that with such important policies in the context of regional bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation mechanisms being actively implemented by stakeholders, Hainan would soon play an important role in trade relations between ASEAN - China in general and between Việt Nam - China in particular.

Speaking highly of the significance and practicality of the expo, which is one of the few major national-level fairs held right after the Chinese Government announced the successful control of the pandemic, the Vietnamese minister expressed his hope that participating businesses will have more information, be proactive and creative, and soon turn ideas and cooperation opportunities into specific programmes, projects and contracts that contribute to bringing economic and trade co-operation between countries to a new height.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade is willing to support and create the most favourable conditions so that Vietnamese, Chinese and foreign enterprises can boost cooperation and achieve the highest results, he added.

At the opening ceremony, Diên had a discussion with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao on creating favourable conditions to boost two-way trade, especially opening doors to more Vietnamese agricultural products.

He proposed Wang back the Vietnamese ministry’s opening of trade promotion offices in Hainan and Chengdu. The Chinese minister accepted the proposal, stressing the need for the two ministries to coordinate closely to boost two-way trade.

Over 3,100 brands from 65 countries and regions are partaking in the third expo. The exhibition area is set to increase by 20 per cent over the previous edition, reaching 120,000sq.m.

On April 10 afternoon, Minister Diên is scheduled to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Việt Nam pavilion, a Việt Nam -China trade and investment promotion conference, and an inaugural ceremony of a Southeast Asia Investment Service Centre at the Hainan Free Trade Port. — VNS