Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy Nguyen Thi Bich Hue in an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency (Photo: VNA)
So said Nguyen Thi Bich Hue, Vietnamese Ambassador to Italy, ahead of the Prime Minister of Italy Giuseppe Conte’s official visit to Vietnam from June 5th-6th.
According to Ms Hue, in terms of politics, the two countries regularly exchange delegations at all levels, especially high level delegations, including the visits to Italy by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in 2013, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung in 2014, State President Tran Dai Quang in 2016, Standing Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh in 2018; or the visits to Vietnam by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in 2014 and President Sergio Mattarella in 2015. Cooperation mechanisms are maintained and strengthened while the two countries also regularly exchange and support each other on multilateral organizations and forums such as the United Nations, ASEM and IPU.
In terms of economics, trade exchange increased dramatically, tripling in the last 10 years from USD1.5 billion in 2009 to over USD4.6 billion in 2018. Vietnam is Italy's largest trading partner in ASEAN, and Italy is Vietnam's third largest trading partner in the European Union (EU).
Cultural, educational and tourism cooperation has also developed. The number of Vietnamese students in Italy has increased rapidly and there are now over 1,000 Vietnamese students in Italy. In 2018, the number of Italian tourists coming to Vietnam for the first time reached 65,000, acting as a bridge in enhancing mutual understanding and promoting cooperation.
People-to-people exchanges are more and more active, especially through cooperation between localities. More and more localities from both countries exchange and build cooperation like Binh Duong with Emilia Romagna Region, Ba Ria - Vung Tau with Veneto Region, and Hanoi with Lazio, in diverse areas such as education and training, urban environment management, smart city and to hi-tech agriculture.
However, the potential for cooperation between Vietnam and Italy is still very large and will be actively exploited in the coming time thanks to convenient factors, including the traditional friendship and solidarity between the two countries since the years of wars; and the huge development potential of each country. Vietnam, an emerging economy in a dynamic economic region, is a market of nearly 100 million people, with a young population in Asia and a growing middle class. Vietnam is also a gateway for Italian businesses to access ASEAN markets and other markets through free trade agreements of which Vietnam is a member. Italy, a member of the group of the world’s most developed industries (G7), is a developed economy, with many strengths in technology, machinery, agriculture, food industry, and can meet increasing demand in Vietnam. With a population of over 60 million, Italy is a big market, an important sea gateway to bring goods into Europe.
Talking about the high-level dialogue on ASEAN-Italy economic relations, Ambassador Hue said that the 21st century is considered the century of Asia with an increasing role of China, the Republic of Korea and India, and especially ASEAN. ASEAN plays an important role in maintaining peace, stability, and prosperity in the region and the world. ASEAN is a large-scale market with more than 600 million people, with all economies undergoing dynamic development and high growth rate.
It can be said that ASEAN has what Italy needs, including young and low cost labor force, large consumer market, high ability in absorbing capacity and high technology, and good production environment. Apart from investment in production to supply the ASEAN market, Italian goods can also be exported to other markets with great incentives thanks to free trade agreements of which ASEAN countries are members.
The ASEAN-Italy high-level dialogue on economic cooperation is an important forum that directly links the leaders of Governments and businesses in ASEAN and Italy. The third dialogue will be held in Hanoi with the participation of high ranking leaders. The second dialogue in 2018 in Singapore attracted more than 300 delegates in 60 sectors from 22 countries, 1.5 times higher than 2017.
In 2019, Italy alone will send more than 100 businesses with 200 delegates. This shows the growing interest of the Italian business community in the ASEAN market./.