The meeting at the headquarters of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) on Thursday. — Photo moit.gov.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyễn Hồng Diên highly appreciated the role of Côte d’Ivoire as an important economic centre and transit market in West Africa.

The minister had a meeting with President of Côte d’Ivoire’s National Assembly Adama Bictogo, who is on an official visit to Việt Nam, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) yesterday.

At the meeting, Minister Nguyễn Hồng Diên informed the President of Côte d’Ivoire’s National Assembly about Việt Nam's economic development and the situation of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

The minister affirmed that Việt Nam always considers Côte d’Ivoire as one of the leading trading partners in Africa.

The country has been one of the two leading rice import markets of Việt Nam in Africa for many years, along with Ghana.

In the structure of Việt Nam's exports to Côte d’Ivoire, rice usually accounts for about 80 per cent.

Việt Nam's rice exports to Côte d’Ivoire reached more than 656,000 tonnes last year, worth nearly $295 million; mainly white rice, fragrant rice and broken rice.

Côte d’Ivoire is one of the major suppliers of raw cashew nuts to Việt Nam.

Việt Nam's raw cashew imports from Côte d’Ivoire usually account for 20-30 per cent of the total value of its raw cashew imports from the world.

Given the position of Côte d’Ivoire in the region, Minister Nguyễn Hồng Diên suggested that in the near future, the two sides consider promoting the negotiation of a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) or preferential trade agreement (PTA).

Côte d’Ivoire could be a bridge for Việt Nam and the West African Economic Community to jointly promote research on the possibility of FTA/PTA negotiations, opening up great opportunities for trade between Việt Nam and this potential economic bloc, said Diên.

In order to further promote bilateral economic and trade cooperation, Minister Nguyễn Hồng Diên proposed to the Chairman of the National Assembly of Côte d’Ivoire to strengthen the exchange of delegations at all levels and business delegations; encourage businesses to meet, contact directly, as well as attend fairs and exhibitions held in each country.

Besides, in addition to rice, it is suggested that Côte d’Ivoire consider increasing the import of products with great demand that Việt Nam has strengths such as textiles, footwear, household goods, construction materials, machinery, and electrical equipment.

At the same time, the two sides can study and promote cooperation in industries such as agricultural product processing, food, mining, and so on.

Appreciating the comments of Vietnamese Minister Nguyễn Hồng Diên, Chairman of the National Assembly of Côte d’Ivoire Adama Bictogo said that the Government of Côte d’Ivoire always considered Việt Nam an important partner in the Asia-Pacific region and wished to strengthen co-operation with the country in all fields, especially in economy and trade.

The chairman expressed his delight at the positive developments in economic and trade cooperation between Việt Nam and Côte d’Ivoire, with two-way turnover maintained at over $1 billion per year on average in the past five years.

He said that Côte d’Ivoire was currently an important transit market. Goods of countries exporting to Côte d’Ivoire can be re-exported to many countries in West Africa.

This also created favourable conditions for Việt Nam's strong commodities, such as agricultural products, textiles, footwear, and household goods, to have the opportunity to access many member markets of ECOWAS.

Bictogo affirmed that he would continue to pay attention to and direct Côte d’Ivoire's relevant agencies to work closely with the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade to jointly promote the implementation of proposals and recommendations mentioned by the Vietnamese side. — VNS