Overview of the seminar (Photo: baoquocte.vn)
Grodno province has more than 1 million people and is located in northwestern Belarus, bordered by Poland in the west and Lithuania in the north. It has advantages in geography and transport to develop trade with the Baltic region and Eastern European countries.
At the seminar, Mr. Nguyen Tien Phuong, Commercial Counselor of the Vietnamese Embassy in Belarus, introduced the export potential of Vietnamese goods, especially agricultural products such as rice, coffee, tea, rubber, cashew nuts, seafood, garments and electrical goods.
He said that the opportunity to increase two-way trade between Vietnam and Belarus is still great, based on the good traditional relations between the two countries and the active participation of the governments and enterprises at present. The evidence is that more than 50 of Belarus’ leading enterprises attended the Expo 2018 in Ho Chi Minh city on December 5th – 8th, of which nine are from Grodno province. Many Belarusian businesses have imported rice, tea, coffee from Vietnam and affirmed that Vietnam’s goods are very promising in the region if they are promoted more.
In addition, Radiovolna Company expects to import human resources from Vietnam to work in its factory because Vietnamese workers have high skills. It has submitted a request for introductions to the Embassy and Trade Office of Vietnam in Belarus.
On behalf of the provincial administration of Grodno, the head of the provincial economic committee expects the participation of Vietnamese enterprises at international fairs held annually by the province and has invited Vietnam to attend the Export-Import Festival 2019 held in the province in September next year.
Moreover, the Belarusian side also wants to promote cooperation in tourism between the two countries. In 2017, the Head of Grodno province visited Vietnam and signed a twinning agreement with the leaders of Da Nang city and Quang Ninh province. However, the two sides have not implemented much. The Belarusian side invited the leaders of the two localities of Vietnam to visit Grodno province to promote the signed agreements.
During the seminar, Vietnamese counselors answered many questions relating to the economy, policies, business practices and partners of Vietnam in some import- export fields of milk, meat and coffee.
At the end of the seminar, the two sides presented symbolic gifts as well as a number of products, and promised following working sessions./.