Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS)’ Instituteof African and Middle Eastern Studies and the group of African Ambassadors toVietnam held an international seminar on promoting AfricanContinental Free Trade Area: opportunities and challenges for Vietnam on May 24.
In his openingspeech, VASS President Dr. Phan Chi Hieu said Vietnamand African countries have a long-standing relationship and always support eachother, from the struggle for national liberation to national development process.Despite COVID-19 pandemic, trade volume between Vietnam and African nations stillrecorded positive growth.
Vietnam'smain exports to Africa include industrial goods (agricultural processingmachinery, phones, phone components), agricultural products (food, coffee, tea,pepper, seafood), and processed goods. Conversely, Vietnam mostly imports rawmaterials like cotton, cashew nuts and timber from Africa. The goods of bothsides complement each other. Therefore, the African Continental Free TradeAgreement (AfCFTA), once effective, will provide anopportunity for Vietnam's goods of competitive edge to penetrate the Africanmarket even more, and vice versa.
AlgerianAmbassador Abdelhamid Boubazine to Vietnam said two-way trade between Vietnamand Africa doubled from 2.52 billion USD in 2010 to 5.5 billion USD in 2022.
Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Thuong Lang, senior lecturer at the National EconomicsUniversity’s Schoolof Trade and InternationalEconomics, said Vietnam needs to fully upgrade its traditional and existing relations withAfrican countries, promote business connectivity, increase market surveys,trade fairs, and exhibitions to fully tap existing opportunities and create newones, and pay attention to risk management in trade and investment.
Vietnamshould establish new forms of cooperation and share new business and economicmodels such as digital business, circular economy and sharing economy, he said,adding that developing online connectivity platforms can help minimisetransaction costs. It is important to focus on forums, workshops, conferencesand exchanges to gain specific insights into each member and external partner.Collaboration should be fostered in emerging fields such as renewable energy,digital transformation, climate change mitigation, and initiatives to achievenet-zero emissions by 2050.
During two sessionsof the event, delegates discussed solutions to boosting exports-imports viadigital platforms, major orientations to economic developments and proposedfinancial mechanisms, policies and measures in support of joint projects withAfrica.
🔯 Sofar, 46 African countries have officially approved the AfCFTA. Once fully operational, the AfCFTA will become the world's largest free trade area,encompassing a market of 1.3 billion people and a combined gross domestic productof up to 3.4 trillion USD./.
