Vietnamese provinces eye Lao markets
Vietnamese provinces eye Lao markets
Business groups from Vietnam's Ben Tre and Dong Nai provinces have expressed their interest in entering the Lao market and finding local business partners at a recent business matching forum in Vientiane.
At the forum, held between Lao and Vietnamese enterprises, Dong Nai provincial representative, Ms Nguyen Thi Lan, said her province had seen important opportunities in trade and investment cooperation in Laos.
“This meeting is our first opportunity to build up a good relationship between Lao and Vietnamese businesses to increase trade and product purchases, especially in the sector of food processing,” she said.
Dong Nai is a province in southeastern Vietnam, located to the east and northeast of Ho Chi Minh City. It is a leading industrial province in the neighbouring country, featuring 34 industrial zones.
Large numbers of companies working in the area make it one of the top four provinces for foreign investment in Vietnam.
Ben Tre provincial representative, Mr Tran Anh Tuan, said businesses from his province could see Laos had large potential markets for food consumption, particularly in fish and processed coconut products.
Located in the Mekong Delta, Ben Tre is wedged between the two main branches of the Ti?n Giang River, itself one of the two main branches of the Mekong River.
The provincial economy is mostly based on agricultural production and fishing.
Ben Tre is home to more than 70,000 hectares of coconut farms and can produce about 200,000 tonnes of fish per year.
Recently, some businesses from the province have worked with Lao enterprises in both trade and investment.
“However the product quantity and trade value from the province's exports to Laos is still small,” Mr Tran said.
“That is why we are here in Laos to push trade and investment cooperation between Laos and the province.”
Businesses from the two provinces visited the country as part of the recent Lao-Viet Trade Fair, in the hunt for business partners.
Mr Tran said more cooperation was needed on food production investment between the provinces and Lao business.
“I do believe that the businesses of Laos and Ben Tre will have more cooperation on business operation and investment, and also promote the use of the two countries' products,” he said.
The Lao Ministry of Industry and Commerce's Foreign Trade Policy Department reported trade value between Laos and Vietnam in the first five months of the year increased by about 5.6 percent compared to the same period last year.
For the first five months, trade value exceeded about 3.4 trillion kip (US$433.78 million). Exports to Vietnam were valued at about 1.8 trillion kip while the imports from Vietnam were around 1.6 trillion kip.
For the entire year of 2012, the trade value between Laos and Vietnam was around 6.8 trillion kip (US$866 million), of which Lao exports to Vietnam made up about 3.5 trillion kip and imports from Vietnam were about 3.3 trillion kip.
The trade value between the two countries is expected to reach US$2 billion by 2015 and US$5 billion by 2020, according to the two countries' governments' plans.
By the end of last year, Vietnamese companies were investing in 440 projects in Laos with a total value of about 42 trillion kip (US$5.38 billion).
vientiane times
