At the seminar (Photo: baocongthuong.vn)
The viewpoint was noted during the international seminar “Africa and Middle East’s policies toward Asia and cooperation opportunities for Vietnam” held on November 15
th by the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Institute for Africa and Middle East Studies (IAMES) under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS).
It aimed to exchange information and analyse look-east policies by some countries in the region, thus proposing solutions to tackle difficulties for more effective cooperation between Vietnam and Africa - Middle East countries.
Addressing the seminar, Nguyen Quang Thuan, VASS President, said that this is a region of rich natural resources, and a potential market. “A majority of countries in the region have developing economies and go along with the tendency of integration and international economic links,” he said. “Meanwhile, Asia, which is considered the driving force of the world current economic growth, is the region that Africa and Middle East countries want to cooperate with, for seeking benefit in cooperation in market, capital, technologies and human resources.”
So far, Vietnam has set up and boosted strong relationship with all of 15 countries in the Middle East and 53 of 55 African countries. Over the past three years, it has welcomed many leaders of the region member countries. Meanwhile, the two-way trade turnover has continuously increased by over three times since 2010.
According to MOFA Deputy Minister Nguyen Phuong Nga, Vietnam and Africa - Middle East countries share a lot of advantages for supporting each other. Being one of Asian countries with most dynamic development, Vietnam has gained outstanding socio-economic achievements and been considered a light of cooperation, while over 70 Africa - Middle East countries with a population of over 1.6 billion, and GDP of over USD490 billion, are attracting others for cooperation.
Participants agreed that in the upcoming time, the two sides should exploit their advantages to boost cooperation for mutual benefit, especially in economics, people-to-people diplomacy, culture and education.
Further coordination at multilateral forums to address common challenges, maintain peace, stability and development in the world are also essential./.