Trade and industrial co-operation with the Middle East and Africa has great potential for Vietnam, a senior government official has said. To promote commercial links with these countries, the Vietnamese government has urged ministries to enhance relations with countries in Africa and Middle East. In December this year, MIT will lead a business mission to Saudi Arabia. The tour will include a Vietnam-Saudi Arabia Business Forum in Riyadh. Nguyen Cong Hien of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT) said agreements and protocols signed with the region during the past few years had paved the way for co-operation in the near future. Speaking at a seminar on Thursday, Hien, who is head of the ministry's office of trade with Africa, Western Asia and South Asia, said Vietnam had signed agreements on trade, scientific and technical co-operation and maritime transportation. According to the ministry's figures, two-way trade between Vietnam and the Middle East neared $1.2 billion last year, including exports of $700 million from Vietnam, a year-on-year increase of 17.2 per cent. The main destinations for Vietnamese goods in the Middle East are United Arab Emirates ($233 million), Turkey ($202 million) and Saudi Arabia ($51 million). Major goods exported to the Middle East include rice, coffee, textiles and garments, computers and electronic components, footwear, and plastic materials. Seafood, rubber, coal, tea, wood and wood products are also major exports from Vietnam. Imports from the Middle East include fuels, petro-chemical products, fertilizers, chemicals and steel. Vietnam has expanded its Middle East market from Iraq and UAE in the 1990s to Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the early years of the 21th century, with UAE and Turkey becoming its biggest markets in the region in 2007. Hien said rising oil prices on the world market was one of the reasons behind the higher import demand. Vietnamese enterprises' promotion campaigns and more aggressive marketing had helped expand markets in the region as well. Vietnam has established diplomatic relations with 48 of the 54 countries in Africa and signed bilateral trade agreements with 15 of them. Two-way trade between Vietnam and African countries rose from $15.5 million in 1991 to more than $1 billion last year, an increase of 21 percent compared with the previous year. Vietnam's exports to Africa amounted to $684 million in 2007, a year-on-year increase of 12 percent. Vietnam has also diversified its products exported to Africa, from the sole export of rice in the 1990s to electric appliances, electronic products, plastics, wood products, bicycles, motorbikes and spare parts, cigarettes, vegetables, fruits, child's toys and dairy products. In 1991, Egypt was Vietnam's only African market. In 2001 that expanded to 20 African countries. Vietnam is currently buying goods from 50 African countries. Major African exporters to Viet Nam include South Africa, Swaziland, Egypt, and Cote d'Ivoire. Lack of information is one of the major reasons that hindered commercial and industrial co-operation between Vietnam and Middle East and African countries, officials said. In addition, Vietnamese companies have been hesitant in expanding investment and business activities in these markets for fear of political unrest in the region.
