Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Đỗ Thắng Hải speaks at the Việt Nam - US Trade Forum on September 13 in HCM City. Photo congthuong.vn

HCM CITY — The Ministry of Industry and Trade coordinated with the HCM City People's Committee to organise the Việt Nam-US Trade Forum on Wednesday in HCM City.

The annual Việt Nam-US Trade Forum discussed how clean energy, infrastructure, healthcare, and the digital economy are among the areas in which the two nations can expand trade ties in future.

Speaking at the forum, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Đỗ Thắng Hải said Việt Nam has always considered the US one of its most important partners.

The official cited statistics showing that two-way trade increased from US$450 million in 1995 when the two countries established diplomatic relations to $124 billion last year.

The US has been Việt Nam’s second biggest trading partner and the largest and most important export market for many years, while Việt Nam is the eight largest trading partner of the US, he said.

The two countries have signed many agreements, documents, and agreements, and in particular, recently on September 10, the two countries officially upgraded their relationship to the level of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace, Cooperation, and Sustainable Development, a major, historic upgrade from the current Comprehensive Partnership.

This is truly a historic milestone in bilateral relations, something that no one could have imagined nearly 30 years ago.

According to the Deputy Minister, recently, the difficult economic situation and high inflation rate in the US have caused the purchasing power of consumers to decrease and that is also one of the reasons why Việt Nam's exports to the US decreased in the first months of the year. However, this decrease was expected to be temporary and not a major trend in the near future.

“Việt Nam's exports have grown again in recent months, showing an expected improvement for 2023. Vietnam's traditional and strong export products such as textiles, furniture, footwear and electronics are expected to continue to recover with positive export growth," Hải said.

“Along with the traditional fields of co-operation, the two sides need to look forward to the fields of the future. I especially want to emphasise three important areas with great potential for co-operation between the two countries - digital transformation and supply chain diversification, energy transformation and technological innovation and environmental protection.”

Digital transformation would be the main driving force of the global economy, and Việt Nam is trying to catch up to narrow the development gap, he said.

It is also making efforts to participate in the global production network and value chain, especially in the diversification of supply chains, to meet the urgent global requirements of today, he said.

“Việt Nam has been and will continue to be a reliable destination for businesses, including American, in an effort to ensure a clean and stable supply chain in a volatile world,” he said.

Maxime Dourdan, Boeing Supply Chain Development Director for Southeast Asia, Japan and the Republic of Korea, highly appreciated the potential and important position of the Vietnamese market for Boeing's business strategy as well as its opportunities for cooperation with national companies.

In the coming time, Boeing will focus on three main directions: deepening business relations in the aviation sector with Vietnamese airlines; cooperation in specific areas such as helicopters and transport; investment in the development of the aeronautical spare parts and equipment supply chain in Việt Nam. — VNS