HCM CITY — Vietnamese and Thai businesses have enhanced trade promotion activities in the other country to achieve bilateral trade of US$20 billion by 2020 as targeted by the two governments, a Việt Nam-Thailand Business Matching event heard in HCM City on Friday.

Phạm Thành Kiên, director of the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, said the trade has grown rapidly in the last few years, topping $12.54 billion last year.

Việt Nam’s exports were worth $3.69 billion, an increase of 15.9 per cent over 2015, while Thailand’s exports grew by 6.9 per cent, he said.

He told the Thais, who included executives from 13 major Thai companies in the food and beverages, cosmetics, and personal care industries, to meet and explore the possibility of collaboration with more than 30 Vietnamese companies taking part in the event.

The event was organised by the Thai consulate in HCM City and Kasikorn Bank (KBank) together with the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and VietinBank.

This two-day programme, which ended on Friday, also included site visits on Thursday to MM Mega Market and Saigon Co-op, the leading supermarket operators in Việt Nam, to get an inkling into consumer behaviours in Việt Nam.

Ureerat Ratanaprukse, the Thai consul in HCM City, said with its large population, of whom more than 50 per cent are of working age and increasing affluence, Việt Nam offers a promising market for Thai products, which are of high quality and reasonable priced.

Many Vietnamese love Thai products, another reason for Thai firms to promote their products here, she said.

The consulate and Kasikorn Bank plan to take a Vietnamese business delegation to Thailand to explore business opportunities, she said.

“Building upon the already cordial and close relations between the two countries and Việt Nam being Thailand’s only strategic partner in ASEAN, the Royal Thai Consulate-General in HCM City is fully committed to continue working in close and sustainable partnership with authorities and leaders in HCM City as well as our business partners in promoting two-way trade and investment between two countries towards our leaders’ commitment to achieve bilateral trade of $20 billions by 2020.”

Nguyễn Hoàng Dũng, deputy general manager of VietinBank, said business matching is a value-added service where the bank provides its clients with opportunities to expand their business, diversify distribution channels and develop new markets.

According to Thawee Teerasoontornwong, executive vice president of KBank, the event is part of the bank’s World Business Matching programme, which aims to deepen its client’s understanding of the Vietnamese market and connect them with their counterparts across the region.

“By leveraging the strong network of local partners, we can provide services to the clients which go beyond financial support.

“Việt Nam has always been our key focus, given the current economic performance and favourable policy to support business and investment. More importantly, Việt Nam has become one of the major export markets for Thai products and several Thai companies are now looking to expand their business to Việt Nam.

“I hope that this event can serve as a bridge to help deliver high-quality Thai products to Vietnamese consumers. I can also foresee more products from Việt Nam entering the Thai market, given the increasing awareness of Vietnamese products among Thai consumers, which in turn will help boost the trade between the two countries.” — VNS