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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended and spoke at the Vietnam - Brazil Business Forum. |
During the program of attending the G20 Summit and bilateral activities in Brazil, on the afternoon of November 17 (local time), in Rio de Janeiro city, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the Vietnam - Brazil Business Forum.
Brazil is currently Vietnam's leading trade partner in Latin America. In recent years, bilateral trade between Vietnam and Brazil has increased rapidly, from 1.53 billion USD in 2011 to more than 7.1 billion USD in 2023; reaching 6.58 billion USD in the first 10 months of 2024. The two countries strive to increase bilateral trade turnover to 10 billion USD in 2025 and 15 billion USD in 2030.
Vietnam mainly exports seafood, rubber, textiles, footwear, iron and steel to Brazil; and imports from Brazil soybeans, wheat, corn, animal feed and raw materials, cotton of all kinds, etc.
Regarding investment, as of October 2024, Brazil has 7 investment projects in Vietnam with a total registered capital of 3.85 million USD, mainly in the fields of manufacturing and processing industry, wholesale and retail, and scientific and technological activities. Believing that economic cooperation between the two sides is not yet commensurate with the potential and political and diplomatic relations, at the Forum, delegates and business communities of the two countries were introduced to the potential, strengths, and investment cooperation desires of each side; at the same time, solutions were proposed to promote cooperation between the two countries, especially in areas where one side has potential and strengths and the other side has demand.
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| Mr. Rodrigo Santiago, Vice President of the Confederation of Industry of Rio de Janeiro, spoke at the Forum. |
Speaking at the Forum, the representative of the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services said that after Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's visit to Brazil in 2023 and this time, the potential for trade relations between Brazil and Vietnam has been further promoted. Today, Vietnam is Brazil's 17th largest supplier and 18th largest trading partner.
Brazil sees great potential in cooperation with Vietnam, especially in high-tech industries, semiconductors, agriculture, energy security, renewable energy, science and technology, climate change, digital transformation and South-South cooperation. In particular, Brazil hopes that the Mercosur-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement will be signed soon, so that through Vietnam, Brazilian businesses can enter the ASEAN market.
Recalling the event of President Ho Chi Minh stopping in Rio de Janeiro on his journey to find a way to save the country and the process of Vietnam gaining national independence, Brazilian Minister of Rural Development Paulo Teixeira highly appreciated the importance of Vietnam in the world food production chain; said that the two sides need to promote cooperation, especially technology in agricultural production to ensure food security, not only for each country but also for the fight against hunger and poverty in the world.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the Vietnam-Brazil relationship continues to develop well with high political trust, especially during the talks between the Prime Minister and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the two sides agreed to upgrade the Vietnam-Brazil relationship to a strategic partnership. This is a good foundation to continue promoting economic-investment-trade cooperation activities between the business communities of the two countries.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the Vietnam - Brazil Business Forum. |
According to the Prime Minister, the two countries have many things in common, including high political trust, economies and markets with complementary strengths, close cultures, sincere feelings, and the same aspiration for peace and national development; he said that the conditions and space for cooperation and development of businesses of the two countries are very large, but economic cooperation is not commensurate with the space, conditions for cooperation and the desires of the two sides; the room for cooperation and development is very large, and he hopes that businesses of the two countries will take advantage of opportunities and cooperate and invest more.
Expressing his delight at the possibility that the target of 10 billion USD in bilateral trade by 2025 set during his visit to Brazil will come true, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called on Vietnamese enterprises to invest in Brazil and Brazilian enterprises to invest more in Vietnam, promoting bilateral trade; especially agricultural cooperation, ensuring food security; renewing traditional growth drivers and promoting new growth drivers, cooperating with Vietnam in exploiting new development spaces such as outer space, sea space, and underground space.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that Vietnam aims to selectively attract investment in high-tech projects with high added value, spillover effects, and connections with domestic enterprises; prioritizing projects in the sectors and fields of science and technology, innovation, research and development, green economy, digital economy, circular economy, knowledge economy, semiconductor manufacturing, new energy (hydrogen), renewable energy, green finance, financial centers, biotechnology, healthcare, etc.
In order to remove bottlenecks to bring economic cooperation to the level of political and diplomatic relations and the wishes of both sides, the Prime Minister said that both sides need to promote the early launch of FTA negotiations with Mercosur, an agreement on investment promotion and protection, an agreement on visas, and Brazil should consider recognizing Vietnam's market economy status.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh asked businesses to support the above efforts to create an open and favorable investment environment, maximizing the potential differences, outstanding opportunities, and competitive advantages of each country. To facilitate sustainable business development, Vietnam is promoting three strategic breakthroughs in institutional building, strategic infrastructure development, and high-quality human resource training, following the orientation of "open institutions, smooth infrastructure, smart governance"; improving the investment and business environment, creating a public, transparent, equal, and healthy business environment, reforming administrative procedures in a simple and fast direction, reducing logistics costs, input costs, and compliance costs, and enhancing the competitiveness of products and businesses.
Assessing the existing opportunities and conditions, the legal environment is continuing to improve, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hopes that businesses of the two countries will promote connections with each other, connect the two economies, connect investment, connect trade, with the viewpoint of "harmonized benefits, shared risks", "listen and understand together, share vision and action together, work together, win together, enjoy together, develop together, share joy, happiness and pride".
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that there is hope and belief in more vibrant economic cooperation between the two countries, with new momentum, new vision and bringing new values, contributing to turning the aspirations of the two countries into reality, making each country increasingly rich and prosperous, the people increasingly prosperous and happy, the friendship between the two countries increasingly closely linked, effective and "forever green, forever sustainable"./.
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