According to the Office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the meeting was co-chaired by Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wen Tao during the official visit to Vietnam from November 25 to 28, 2023 of the Chinese Minister of Commerce. Previously, the Chinese Minister of Commerce also visited Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen.
The Vietnam-China Economic and Trade Cooperation Committee is a regular, rotating cooperation mechanism between the two governments, co-chaired by the leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Commerce of China. The 12th meeting is the first meeting co-chaired by the two Ministers. This is also the first meeting to be held in person after 3 years of interruption due to the pandemic.
At the closed-door meeting held right before the meeting, the two Ministers affirmed their determination to closely coordinate and make more efforts to effectively implement the common perceptions reached by the two countries' senior leaders on expanding bilateral economic and trade cooperation between Vietnam and China in recent times.
The two Ministers also agreed that economic and trade cooperation is a bright spot in the overall relationship of the "Vietnam - China Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership". Vietnam and China have been and are each other's leading important trade partners.
For many years, China has been Vietnam's largest trading partner, largest supplier of goods, and second largest export market. Vietnam has also become the country with the fourth largest trade volume with China in the world (2022); and is also China's largest trading partner in ASEAN.
Speaking at the meeting, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien welcomed and highly appreciated the significance of Minister Vuong Van Dao's official visit to Vietnam and co-chairing the 12th meeting of the Vietnam-China Economic and Trade Cooperation Committee with the Minister. This is concrete evidence of the increasingly important role of Vietnam-China economic and trade cooperation for each country's economy, especially in the context of Vietnam-China comprehensive cooperation reaching a new height.
Support Vietnamese enterprises to build brands in the Chinese market
On this occasion, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien proposed a number of important measures to implement the common perception of the two countries' senior leaders, such as: supporting Vietnamese enterprises to build brands in the Chinese market; accelerating the process of opening the market for Vietnamese agricultural products; promoting the signing of the Framework Agreement on rice trade between the two countries; requesting Chinese authorities to allow a transition period for lobsters when imported into China;
Expand the list of border gates between China and Vietnam that are allowed to import agricultural, aquatic and food products; complete procedures to establish a Vietnam Trade Promotion Office in Haikou, Hainan, China in 2023; strengthen economic and trade cooperation and coordination between the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnamese localities and Chinese localities; effectively implement signed agreements such as the "Memorandum of Understanding on enhancing cooperation to ensure the supply chain of Vietnamese and Chinese goods"; support, facilitate and give incentives for Vietnamese enterprises to increase their presence, rent warehouses and export through China's e-commerce pilot zones or free trade pilot zones.
In response to the Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade, the Chinese Minister of Commerce expressed his willingness to coordinate with the Vietnamese side to resolve issues of mutual concern.
Welcome high quality agricultural products of Vietnam
Responding to issues of concern to Vietnam in the field of agricultural exports, the Minister of Trade assessed that the Chinese market has great demand and welcomes high-quality agricultural products from Vietnam.
"After 10 months since China opened its market for durian (late 2022), Vietnam's durian export turnover has reached nearly 2 billion USD and is expected to far exceed this figure in 2023. The Ministry of Commerce will continue to coordinate and promote Chinese Customs to open the market for Vietnamese agricultural products" - Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao.
Minister Vuong Van Dao also said: Regarding the problems in exporting spiny lobsters, Vietnamese enterprises need to urgently register their production and packaging facilities with Chinese Customs; at the same time, the competent authorities of the two countries need to promptly implement the work of inspecting and evaluating enterprises and growing areas directly or online so that spiny lobsters can be exported to China.
Regarding the proposal to coordinate customs clearance to avoid the recurrence of congestion at border gates, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce affirmed that it attaches great importance to and is ready to coordinate and implement measures to facilitate customs clearance to ensure the interests of Vietnamese farmers.
Regarding support for discovering Vietnamese brands in the Chinese market, China will provide a favorable business environment and create conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to build a foothold in the Chinese market. The Chinese Minister of Commerce expressed his delight that Vietnam has built a national booth on a number of major Chinese e-commerce platforms; many Vietnamese products are very popular and sell very well.
Regarding local cooperation, Minister Vuong Van Dao affirmed that economic and trade relations with localities play an important role in promoting healthy and stable economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. The Chinese side highly appreciated the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade's establishment of cooperation mechanisms with Guangxi and Yunnan and affirmed that it will support the Ministry of Industry and Trade in building cooperative relations with localities with economic strengths in China as well as promoting relations between localities of the two countries.
Support the establishment of Vietnamese trade promotion offices in China
The Ministry of Trade expressed its continued support for the establishment of Vietnam Trade Promotion Offices (XTTM) in China, and suggested that the Vietnamese side increase exchanges and reach consensus with localities that plan to establish XTTM Offices in the near future, such as Jiangsu and Sichuan; at the same time, it suggested that both sides discuss and urge the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the presiding agency) to speed up related procedures to be able to establish a Vietnam Trade Promotion Office in Haikou, Hainan Province, China in the near future, creating results for the upcoming visit of high-ranking leaders.
On this occasion, the Chinese Minister of Commerce also put forward many new ideas to expand and facilitate bilateral economic and trade cooperation such as strengthening agricultural cooperation; trade defense cooperation, cross-border e-commerce cooperation; promoting the opening/upgrading of border gates, building smart border gates and improving the level of customs clearance facilitation...
Improve the level of customs clearance facilitation at border gates
Responding to the proposals from China, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien expressed his welcome and hope that China would cooperate in sharing experiences in the fields of trade defense and e-commerce; and is ready to coordinate and promote relevant ministries and localities in opening/upgrading border gates, building smart border gates in Lang Son, improving the level of customs clearance facilitation as well as enhancing cooperation in agriculture.
Regarding investment, the two sides share each other's interests in the investment field, especially creating a favorable environment to attract investment.
Accordingly, Vietnam requested China to continue implementing projects using the Mekong-Lancang Special Cooperation Fund, including expanding the scale and areas of non-refundable aid provision to Vietnam; and speed up the implementation of the non-refundable aid package.
On the other hand, China also shared its desire to promote digital economic cooperation, green development; strengthen industrial cooperation; improve the investment and business environment...
On this occasion, the two sides also discussed a number of issues related to cooperation, negotiations on accession, upgrading and implementation of commitments within multilateral frameworks such as ACFTA, RCEP, WTO, etc.
The 12th meeting of the Vietnam-China Economic and Trade Cooperation Committee took place in a spirit of friendship, sincerity and openness. The two sides frankly discussed issues of mutual concern and reached many important consensuses to promote Vietnam-China economic and trade cooperation in the new period and agreed on a plan to hold the 13th meeting in China. The results of the meeting will also be reported by both sides to the Prime Ministers of the two countries and prepare for important upcoming foreign affairs activities of the two Parties and the two States.
According to statistics from Vietnam Customs, the scale of Vietnam-China trade in 2022 reached 175.56 billion USD, up 5.47% compared to 2021. Of which, exports to China reached 57.7 billion USD, up 3.18%; imports from China reached 117.8 billion USD, up 6.63%. China is Vietnam's largest trading partner, largest import market and second largest export market, after the US.
In the context of many major economies in the world facing difficulties, causing a strong impact on Vietnam's foreign trade activities, exports to the Chinese market continued to maintain a positive growth rate in the first 10 months of 2023 (up 5.1% over the same period in 2022), reaching nearly 50 billion USD. This is one of the few leading important markets of Vietnam where we have maintained export growth momentum.
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