LAHORE: While briefing the media at the Associated House in Lahore on Tuesday, Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Nguyen Tien Phong, said that Vietnam wants to have good relations with Pakistan.
He said that the main reasons for low bilateral trade between Vietnam and Pakistan is the lack of information about each other and low level of interaction, transportations, logistics and Halal regulations. Similarly, there is no bilateral investment treaty so far between both the countries.
“Our Embassy sees that the number of trade disputes between companies is increasing year by year. The kind of disputes are varying, mostly related to the payment. We hope that both sides will give more support to each other in dealing with these cases in order to build trust among our business community.” said the ambassador.
Phong welcomed general and special business and investment delegations from Pakistan in general and tea import/export business in particular.
He said the Embassy of Vietnam will provide full support for linking Pakistani enterprises with Vietnamese partners to do business in Vietnam, adding that the Vietnamese government is considering Pakistan’s proposal to sign an agreement on expanding aggregation for a number of products for Pakistan to take advantage of GSP incentives from the EU.
In this regard, he added that the third Bilateral Political Consultation and the fifth Meeting of Vietnam – Pakistan Joint Commission on Trade is scheduled in the first half of 2023 tentatively. He said the meeting is a useful mechanism for both the government to meet and discuss on how to increase trade between Pakistan and Vietnam for economic growth and both countries’ people benefits in the context of globalisation in market integration and development of information technology,” he added.
He informed that trade volume between Pakistan and Vietnam has increased from $54 million in 2005 to more than $700 million in 2017 and reduced in recent years due to some reason, especially after the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The volume of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Vietnam reached more than $794 million in 2021, increasing by 54.41% compared to 2020. In 2022, the figure continuously climbed to more than $904 million (approximately $1 billion), an increase of 12.17% compared to the previous year.
During 2021, Vietnam’s exports to Pakistan $598 million, increased to 50.67% and imports from Pakistan $196 million, increased 66.97% compared to 2020. In 2022, Vietnam’s exports to Pakistan went above $600 million, increasing by 0.33% and the imports from Pakistan went above $303 million, increasing approximately by 35.31% compared to the preceding year. A part of this decrease can be attributed to the import restrictions that Pakistan has had in place.
However, as per the ambassador, it is still very low as compared to the huge potential of the both sides. Vietnam’s main product exported to Pakistan in 2022 was mobile phones and electronic components of them at the highest position (193 million USD), tea (102 million USD). These two were followed by synthetic yarn and textile, black pepper, natural rubber, and fish products. Pakistan is importing about 95 % of Pegasus from Vietnam. Other items include cashew nut, iron and steel, machinery and equipment, and chemicals. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s key imported items from Pakistan were fabrics, leather, pharmaceutical products, and cotton yarn.
As per the Vietnamese ambassador, investment between the both countries is still very limited. In 2022, Pakistan has three new investment projects in Vietnam with a capital of $946 thousand. “Pakistan invests in the fields of textiles, manufacturing of medical equipment,” he concluded.
Cashew is a luxury product. Sorry to say, but IMF has banned import of luxury products. So, we cannot buy Cashew Nuts from Vietnam.
It’s true that Cashew Nuts are ultra luxurious item. Our country, Pakistan cannot afford it. So, import of Cashew Nuts from Vietnam should be banned in Pakistan.