Overview of Vietnam Trade Office in Romania

The Vietnam Trade Office in Romania is responsible for supporting businesses of all parties to connect and trade, promoting economic and trade cooperation.

Functions and tasks of the Vietnam Trade Office in Romania

Romania is a potential market for Vietnamese enterprises to exploit and boost exports, especially small and medium enterprises with moderate financial scale. With its role, in recent times, the Vietnam Trade Office in Romania (concurrently in charge of Serbia, Montenegro, Albania) has carried out many activities to support businesses of all parties to connect trade and promote economic and trade cooperation.

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and Romanian Minister of Economy, Enterprise and Tourism signed a Memorandum of Understanding on promoting cooperation in economic fields of mutual interest. Photo: MOIT

However, in the bilateral trade structure between Vietnam and Romania, the import-export turnover of the two countries still modestly accounts for 0.2% of each country's market share. In 2023, the total import-export turnover of the two countries reached 430.8 million USD, an increase of 1.36%. Of which, exports were worth 282.3 million USD, down 12.4% and imports were 148 million USD, up 44% compared to 2022.

In the 2019-2023 period, bilateral trade in goods between the two countries increased more than 1.65 times from 261.4 million USD in 2019 to 431 million USD in 2023, with an average growth rate of 15% per year.

In the first 8 months of 2024, the trade turnover between Vietnam and Romania reached about 350.5 million USD, up 37.5% over the same period in 2023. Of which, exports reached 246 million USD, up 39.2% and imports reached 104.5 million USD, up 33.6%. The trade surplus in the first 8 months of 2024 reached nearly 141.5 million USD.

One of the reasons for this limitation is the limited information about the market of both sides. The business communities of both sides still lack information about each other, the understanding of the two countries' businesses about each other's markets and business cultures is still relatively sketchy, leading to ineffective cooperation; negotiations and bargaining take a lot of time and are carried out many times.

Along with that, geographical distance is a big barrier to understanding and penetrating each other's markets. High transportation costs and time consuming make it difficult for goods from each country to access each other's markets. On the other hand, non-tariff barriers are also a challenge in promoting trade cooperation between the two sides.

More opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to export to Romania

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Romania, Vietnamese businesses have many opportunities to promote the export of goods to Romania, because in April 2024, Romania joined the Schengen area by air and water and is trying to complete the necessary procedures to be able to fully join by land.

This opens up many opportunities to promote the export of goods through the Constanta port in the Black Sea to EU countries, bringing the opportunity to exploit Romania's seaport to become a transit port for goods to Europe in the Black Sea region, shortening the time to transport goods from Vietnam to European countries.

In addition to agricultural products, Romania also has strengths in information technology and machine manufacturing. In March 2024, with the support of the Trade Office, leading Romanian mechanical enterprises such as Dacia came to study the market and discussed cooperation in automobile production and assembly and had initial meetings with Thaco Group, VinFast... In addition, the Romanian market has a high demand for cooperation in sending workers to work in factories, especially in the fields of mechanical engineering and shipbuilding.

The Vietnam Trade Office in Romania has many activities to support businesses of all parties to connect and promote economic and trade cooperation. Illustrative photo

Although the cooperation opportunities are wide open, the export of goods to this market is facing certain difficulties. Currently, the Romanian market has up to 90% of small and medium-sized enterprises, so in the initial connection process, Romanian enterprises tend to approach large Vietnamese enterprises, but the orders are often of small value and receive little attention from enterprises. Meanwhile, Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises have not received the trust of local enterprises in the initial transactions.

To boost export promotion to the Romanian market, the Vietnam Trade Office in this market recommends that the Ministry of Industry and Trade as well as domestic ministries and sectors promote the organization of multi-sector business delegations to explore the market and connect for cooperation.

Vietnam Trade Office in Romania (concurrently in charge of Serbia, Montenegro, Albania)

Commercial Counselor Pham Thi Thu Ha

Phone: 40733494875

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Source: https://congthuong.vn/tong-quan-ve-thuong-vu-viet-nam-tai-rumani-366829.html