Prague (VNA) – A Vietnam-Czech Republic tradepromotion seminar was held in Prague, the Czech Republic on November 28 to helpenterprises from both sides seek investment and cooperation opportunities,contributing to promoting their bilateral economic and trade partnership.

Attending the event were Deputy Minister of Industry andTrade Hoang Quoc Vuong, Ambassador to the Czech Republic Ho Minh Tuan and VicePresident of the Czech Chamber of Commerce Borivoj Minar, who lauded the growthof traditional friendship between the two countries thanks to regular visits ofleaders from both sides.

They agreed that the sound bilateral political-diplomaticrelationship provides a firm foundation for the partnership between the twocountries, especially in economy and trade.

In recent year, the two sides have enjoyed double-digitexpansion in two-way trade, which reached nearly 1.2 billion USD in 2018 and900 million USD in the first nine months of 2019.

However, they said they are yet to reach their potential.

Ambassador Tuan said that along with the signing of theEU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, the organization of activities to connectbusinesses will help promote trade and investment cooperation between the twocountries.

Deputy Minister Vuong said that the two governments haveapproved an inter-governmental committee to facilitate collaboration betweenVietnamese and Czech businesses. He stressed the need to hold more activitiesto connect the two business communities.

He said that Vietnam, with an economic scale of over 300billion USD and growth of about 7 percent annually, has abundant potential forcooperation with foreign investors, adding that the country can become agateway for the Czech Republic to access the 600-million-strong ASEAN market.Currently, Vietnam has signed 13 free trade agreements.

Meanwhile, Vice President of the Czech Chamber of CommerceBorivoj Minar underlined the need for more activities to connect businesses andexplore more cooperation opportunities in industry and services.

The Czech side is ready to send business delegations to Vietnamto seek partnerships, said Minar.

Hoang Dinh Thang, President of the Vietnamese Association inEurope said that the Vietnamese community and businesses in the Czech Republicare willing to help link businesses of the two countries and increase exportsof Vietnam to the Czech Republic.

Speaking to Vietnam News Agency correspondents in the CzechRepublic, Vuong and Minar highlighted the significance of the EVFTA inpromoting the Vietnam-Czech partnership in the future. Once become effective,the deal will bring about more opportunities for EU businesses to invest inVietnam, while erasing taxes for 85 percent of the Czech Republic’s goodsexported to Vietnam./.