Nigeria, Vietnam to boost bilateral trade, relations

The embassy of the Socialist Republic of Four lessons for Nigeria as Vietnam’s GDP doubles in a decade in collaboration with the Nigeria-Vietnam Economic, Trade and Cultural Association, (NVETCA) is set to hold a high-level roundtable business meeting in Abuja to improve bilateral trade and economic relations between the two countries.

The meeting scheduled for October 30, 2024, is co-hosted by Bui Quoc Hung, Vietnamese ambassador and Sani Bako, chairman of NVETC.

Its focus is on harnessing more trade areas, particularly in agriculture, food processing, import and export, manufacturing, infrastructure, and information technology.

“Both countries now more than ever before need to harness their potentials with the view to finding more meaningful and deeper ways of forging mutually beneficial means of trade and collaboration,” said Wale Akintade, group director of strategic communications and marketing, NVETC.

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“Since Nigeria established diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1976, trade has only centred around a few commodities and in a few sectors despite the huge potentials available for trade and economic growth between both countries.”

According to him, the business round table presents a fantastic opportunity for economic growth and cooperation.

He noted that Nigeria’s strengths in oil and gas hold huge potential in agriculture and manufacturing and can complement Vietnam’s expertise in technology, textiles, and electronics.

Similarly, Vietnam’s experience in exporting goods to the United States and China can also help Nigeria expand its global market reach appreciably, he added.

The key areas to be looked at during the event are strengthening agricultural trade, where Nigeria can export cashews, cocoa, and other products to Vietnam while importing machinery, and technology, and the exchange of agricultural goods to boost local production.

Akintade said energy cooperation where Nigeria’s oil and gas reserves and Vietnam’s expertise in renewable energy can help reduce the present energy crisis in the country.