Promoting two-way investment, opening up space for Vietnam - Algeria cooperation

The Prime Minister believes that with new spirit, new motivation, new resources and the results achieved, Vietnam and Algeria will act in line with the newly established Strategic Partnership.

On the afternoon of November 19 (local time), during the official visit to Algeria, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Algerian Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb attended and spoke at the Vietnam - Algeria Economic Forum.

Prime Minister invites Vietnamese businesses to invest in Algeria

Expressing his sincere thanks to the businesses that participated in the forum and contributed to the bilateral relationship, especially economic cooperation in the new period, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh believes that the goal of building a "new Algeria" will have important contributions from Vietnam and Vietnamese businesses.

The Prime Minister speaks at the Vietnam - Algeria Economic Forum. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Taking time to share with delegates about the fundamental factors, strategic orientations, achievements in the past time and the goals, tasks and key solutions in the coming time, the Prime Minister hopes that Algerian businesses will feel secure in investing in Vietnam with an increasingly favorable investment and business environment.

At the same time, the Prime Minister earnestly called on Vietnamese enterprises to increase investment in Algeria, more strongly and decisively, to exploit the advantages of this country, with its location connecting three continents, an area of ​​more than 2 million km2, both desert and sea, diverse climate conditions, favorable for industrial, agricultural and service development.

According to the Prime Minister, Vietnamese enterprises can invest in Algeria "from tea planting to chip production" and this is very feasible.

The first pillar of cooperation mentioned by the Prime Minister is energy. Accordingly, the National Energy Industry Group (Petrovietnam) and other enterprises need to continue to coordinate to expand cooperation and investment in Algeria in the exploitation and refining of petrochemicals for export to other countries, including fertilizers; in the spirit of "must research and invest immediately, without delay". Along with that are new energy fields such as wind power and solar power.

More broadly, Vietnamese enterprises can invest in Algeria from tea cultivation, livestock farming, forestry, animal feed, rice cultivation... to high technology such as semiconductor chip production, space conquest products... Viettel Group can cooperate with Algerian partners to produce 5G and 6G equipment.

Taking time to discuss the agricultural sector in depth, the Prime Minister said that Vietnam has a lot of experience in rice cultivation, tea cultivation, aquaculture, seafood processing, etc. Currently, Vietnam not only exports agricultural products but also advocates exporting agricultural experience, models and technology to the world, as directed by General Secretary To Lam.

Therefore, Vietnamese enterprises can invest in Algeria, cultivate locally, export products to Africa, Europe, the Middle East and reduce taxes and costs. The Prime Minister believes that Algeria's land and resources, combined with the intelligence of the two countries' people and the spirit of solidarity and mutual assistance, will help create material wealth, because "nothing is impossible".

The Prime Minister also said that in the cooperation between the two countries, it is necessary to boldly assign work and place orders to enterprises, promote the role of both state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises, with the spirit of the highest efficiency, with sincere affection and responsibility, "from heart to heart", considering Algeria's interests as Vietnam's interests, Algeria's achievements as Vietnam's achievements.

Regarding the mechanism, the Prime Minister suggested that both sides continue to promote their role and upgrade the Vietnam-Algeria Joint Committee on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation , and implement it flexibly. If it exceeds their authority, they must report to the Prime Ministers of the two countries. At the same time, the agencies and banks must find the most convenient and safest payment methods.

The Prime Minister said that the policy belongs to the two States and political leaders, but to turn the policy into products and concrete results, it must come from the ministries, branches, agencies and especially the businesses of the two countries.

The Prime Minister believes that with new momentum, new motivation, new resources, and the results that both sides have achieved, the two sides will act in accordance with the newly established Strategic Partnership and be worthy of previous generations, further promoting the precious heritage of solidarity, unity, sharing, selfless and transparent assistance. From there, the two countries' potential differences, outstanding opportunities, and competitive advantages will be transformed into specific, measurable projects, products, and results, contributing to building two powerful and prosperous countries, with people increasingly prosperous and happy.

Vietnam - Algeria share common core values

In recent years, economic cooperation between Vietnam and Algeria has made encouraging progress. In 2024, Vietnam exported about 192.3 million USD to Algeria, mainly coffee, pepper, metals and chemicals; imported nearly 6 million USD, mainly vegetables, animal feed and raw materials.

The Prime Minister believes that with new momentum, new motivation, new resources, and the results achieved, the two sides will act in line with the newly established Strategic Partnership. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Regarding investment, the most prominent is the Bir Seba oil and gas project (a joint venture between the Vietnam Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Corporation - part of Petrovietnam, the Algerian National Oil and Gas Company, and the Thai Oil and Gas Exploration and Production Company) which has now exploited over 55 million barrels of oil.

However, the scale of cooperation is still not commensurate with the potential of the two economies and there is still a lot of room for cooperation, especially in areas where both sides have strengths and need to complement each other such as energy, minerals, construction, infrastructure development, logistics, high-tech agriculture, etc.

Previously, at the press meeting, announcing the two countries' upgrading of bilateral relations to a strategic partnership between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Algerian Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb, which took place at noon on November 19 (local time), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the two sides had a very successful meeting, comprehensively exchanged and highly agreed on the principles, directions and measures to further strengthen the relationship between the two countries, worthy of the good relationship and affection that the people of the two countries have for each other.

The agreement to upgrade the Vietnam-Algeria relationship to a Strategic Partnership reflects high political trust at all levels; expanding the scale and scope of cooperation in all fields, especially economic cooperation, investment, culture, science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, education and training; identifying economic cooperation as the basis for promoting the two countries' relationship to become more in-depth, substantive and effective.

Politically, the two leaders agreed to continue the fine tradition of friendship, constantly enhance political trust, consolidate solidarity, cohesion and support each other within the framework of multilateral and bilateral cooperation.

Regarding economics, trade and investment, realizing that the two countries have a large room for cooperation, with mutual support, the two sides are determined to consider this an important pillar, a driving force for the framework of the Strategic Partnership. In that spirit, the two sides agreed to promote negotiations on trade agreements to open markets for each side's products and step up trade promotion, diversification, and increase the exchange of key products.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Algerian Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb met with the press, announcing the two countries' upgrading of bilateral relations to a strategic partnership. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

The two sides also agreed to promote a favorable, transparent, fair and non-discriminatory trade and investment environment. The two sides affirmed to create favorable conditions for strategic cooperation projects, especially those in oil and gas, garment and agriculture, to be implemented effectively, stably and sustainably, as a foundation for expanding into other potential and mutually beneficial areas of cooperation.

Regarding cooperation at multilateral forums, the two sides discussed regional and international issues of mutual concern; affirmed their support for multilateralism and will continue to cooperate closely at international and regional organizations, promote the reform process of the global governance system to be fair and effective and strengthen the role of developing countries, and support Southern countries to have a greater voice and role in international relations.

The two sides supported the central role of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the African Union (EU) and agreed to contribute to promoting cooperation between countries in Asia and Africa and South-South cooperation.

Regarding other areas of cooperation, the two leaders also had in-depth discussions on promoting cooperation in new areas, in line with the strengths and development requirements of each country, such as agriculture - environment, science - technology, innovation, digital transformation, cooperation in Halal food production, culture, education - training, people-to-people exchange and local cooperation...

Vietnam is one of the top 20 economies in international trade with an import-export turnover of nearly 800 billion USD, a trade surplus of nearly 25 billion USD and is a full member of 17 free trade agreements with most major economic partners in the world.

Nguyen Hanh

Source: https://congthuong.vn/thuc-day-dau-tu-hai-chieu-mo-khong-gian-hop-tac-viet-nam-algeria-431233.html