VN looks to tap trade potential with India
VN looks to tap trade potential with India
Businesses from Viet Nam and India are targeting their two-way trade to reach a value of US$7 billion by 2015, vice chairman of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hoang Van Dung said yesterday at a business seminar in Da Nang.
The seminar, which was attended by over 100 businesses from India and Viet Nam's central provinces, offered the opportunity for them to work together in the future.
Dung said companies from the two countries had yet to overcome difficulties in connectivity, transport and productive co-operation, meaning the huge potential of investment and trade between the two sides had yet to be exploited.
"India is among the top ten trading partners of Viet Nam and the total trade between the two countries will soon reach US$4 billion, while the bilateral export-import turnover in the first 10 months of last year was $3.2 billion," Dung said.
He added that India still sees Viet Nam's oil and gas reserves as an opportunity for investment, along with the country's tea, mining and information technology industries – which also act as a threshold to the Southeast Asian region as a whole.
"We bring businesses from India to Viet Nam with the intention of boosting investment and trade. The year 2012 was a benchmark as it marked the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between the two nations," Indian Ambassador to Viet Nam Ranjit Rae said at the seminar yesterday.
"We want to promote the connections between Viet Nam and India by air, land and sea. The latter connection between the two first emerged thousands of years ago when merchandise sailing ships from India docked at sea ports in Viet Nam," he added.
He stressed that promotion of tourism will play an important role in increasing bilateral investment.
"Last year India's Jet Airways and Vietnam Airlines signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on opening a direct flight between India and Viet Nam, and we hope to launch it later this year," the Ambassador said.
Director of the Viet Nam Tourism Administration Nguyen Van Tuan said more could be done to improve the tourist links between the two nations, despite an agreement being reached on this issue as far back as 2001.
"Around 14.5 million Indians travel every year, of which 2.5 million come to the ASEAN region. However, the figure of Indian tourists visiting Viet Nam has been small," Tuan told the seminar.
"This slow progress in tourism is due to a lack of travel promotions, marketing and tour surveys. The lack of a direct air route was also behind the poor development of tourism," he added.
Vu Trong Thuat, a manager of the Da Nang-based Monaco hotel said he has yet to see a tourist from India coming to stay at his business.
"There are many problems that tourism administrations in Viet Nam and India should solve in the coming years. Slow visa processes for tourists, a lack of tourism conferences and familiarisation (FAM) trips organised for travel agencies have also been major reasons for the slow development in tourism," Thuat told Viet Nam News.
"We hope that the situation will change when the first direct flight launches this year," he said.
Dr. Umapathy Panyala Reddy, chief executive officer from Apollo Hospitals, Bangalore, said Viet Nam was a potential market for investment.
"I was welcomed by Vietnamese people with smile and warm hospitality during my few days visiting Ha Noi, HCM City and Da Nang. The two countries share similarities in culture, family values and religion. Everything is well suited to set up investment here and I hope to open a hospital in Da Nang soon," he said.
Apollo Hospitals is one of Asia's largest healthcare groups with over 8,500 beds across 50 hospitals in India and overseas.
India has 86 projects with a total investment of $868 million in Viet Nam currently, and it is hoped that this figure will reach $1 billion by 2015.
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