Speakers at a seminar on trade promotion and investment with the Bremen market organised by the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of HCM City. Photo courtesy of the centre

HCM CITY — HCM City and Germany’s Bremen State have great potential for cooperation in trade and investment in a range of fields, Hoàng Thị Hương, chief representative of BremenInvest, a trade and investment services provider, has said.

When investing in Bremen state, Vietnamese businesses need to pay attention to products and services that have high-tech content as well as environmental factors and consumer health, Hương said at a seminar held on Wednesday in HCM City.

“Quality, reliability and delivery time are the deciding factors, instead of prices,” she added. Most EU commodity standards are recognised in Germany and vice versa. 

Businesses should pay attention to CE marking certificates, an administrative marking that indicates conformity with health, safety and environmental protection standards for products sold within the European Economic Area.

The tax system in the state is relatively complicated, so businesses should also seek tax advice when doing business in Bremen, according to Hương.

Bremen is an industrial port city in Germany, which accounts for more than 30 per cent of the state and is the mainstay economy of Germany and Europe.

It is home to leading industries in logistics, automobiles, aviation, automation, education, research and development, renewable energy, seaports and food and beverages. 

BremenInvest, set up in 2018 in HCM City, aims to facilitate trade and investment between HCM City and Bremen state.

Covering an area of 404sq.km with a population of 797,000, Bremen is the smallest state of Germany’s 16 states.

Germany is Việt Nam’s largest trading partner in Europe, accounting for nearly one fifth of Vietnamese exports to the EU, and is an important gateway for transshipment of Vietnamese goods to other markets in Europe. 

Two-way trade between Việt Nam and Germany has doubled since 2010, with an average growth rate of over 10 per cent per year, reaching over US$10 billion. 

As of February, two-way trade reached more than $1.5 billion, up 5 per cent over the same period last year.

Germany ranks 18th among countries and territories investing in Việt Nam with more than 300 firms with 361 projects in the fields of engineering, machinery manufacturing, logistics, chemicals and renewable energy, with total investment of more than $2 billion. 

Việt Nam has 35 projects investing in Germany worth more than $250 million in the fields of finance - banking, information technology, restaurants and hotels.

Germany is one of HCM City’s major partners with large projects in the city such as the Metro Line 2, Vietnam - Germany University and German International University.

The seminar was organised by the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of HCM City. — VNS