Vietnam - Ukraine: Bringing Trade, Investment to a New High

On a working visit to Ho Chi Minh City on June 12, Ukrainian Ambassador to Vietnam Ivan Dovganych and Commercial Counsellor Petro Vrublievski held a meeting with Vietnamese industry associations and businesses with business and investment ties with Ukraine at the VCCI-HCM head office.

This is the time to review achievements in trade and investment ties between Vietnam and Ukraine, introduce their potential and strengths, exchange initiatives and measures to bring mutual ties to a new high.

Ukraine and Vietnam have traditional friendship relations consolidated for decades. This lays firm groundwork to advance the two-way cooperation ties in the future. The formation of the Vietnam - Ukraine Joint Government Committee for economic, commercial, scientific and technological cooperation has boosted mutual commercial development and economic cooperation.

 

In commerce, the two nations have created a list of key commodities. Ukraine mainly exports steel, machinery, energy equipment and fertilisers to Vietnam while it imports rice, garment, textile, footwear, seafood, coffee, pepper, spices and electronic products from Vietnam. Statistics released by Vietnamese organs showed that Vietnam exported US$256 million of goods and imported US$289 million from Ukraine in 2008. Both sides expect to see multi-fold growth in the coming time.

 

In addition, Vietnam’s direct investment capital into the Ukrainian economy reached US$27 million as of March 2009. Vietnamese investors mainly invest in plastic package, paper, electronic technique, instant noodle and woodwork. The investment demand of Vietnamese enterprises in Ukraine has been on a sharp rise and now more than 40 Vietnamese enterprises are effectively operating there. Several Ukrainian enterprises like Vicorutech, Lotus, Tienki, Ucrinternergo and KrAZ are effectively operating in Vietnam. They have poured US$13.4 million into Vietnam. In 2008, the two-way trade made a breakthrough as revenues surged despite global economic slowdown.

 

Vietnam and Ukraine can expand cooperation in many fields, especially energy. Ukraine is strong in mineral processing, consulting, technology transfer, and electric manufacturing. Meanwhile, Vietnam has a very high energy growth. Thus, Ukraine can increase its investment in this field in the Southeast Asian nation. Vietnam also pledged to create all favourable conditions as well as legal corridors for Ukrainian firms to do business in Vietnam.

At the meeting, Ambassador Ivan Dovganych said the economies of Vietnam and Ukraine did not compete but supplemented each other very effectively. This is an important advantage for both the nations to build and advance cooperation in all fields and gradually step into global common wealth community.

 

Over the past decade, Ukraine always kept high economic growth, recorded at 7 per cent per annum on average - the same rate as Vietnam. Today the success of Ukraine has strong assistance from Vietnam, especially the Vietnamese community there. Mr Vu Dinh Luyen, honorary consul of Ukraine in Ho Chi Minh City, said the Vietnamese community, with around 8,000 people, had made important contributions to the development of Ukraine and bridged Vietnam with Ukraine. Ambassador Ivan Dovganych added the Vietnamese economy had recently made dynamic growth and Ukraine hoped to strengthen multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam to create the most developed relationship. In spite of distance, Ukraine and Vietnam still have many common points and cooperative opportunities and potentialities. To further strengthen the cooperative ties for mutual development, especially in economic and commercial fields, the two nations need to create free trade principles as these will heighten the quality of economic and commercial cooperation between the two countries. Without direct competition, Ukraine manufactures what Vietnam needs and Vietnam makes what Ukraine needs. Therefore, the signing of a free trade agreement will create an important driving force to promote trade activities between the two countries.

 

Also at this meeting, Ambassador Ivan Dovganych enthusiastically gave answers to questions raised by Vietnamese firms like Thai Son, Maseco and Petex about business climate in Ukraine. He informed that the Government of Ukraine will make important changes to create most favourable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to do business in Ukraine.

 

At the end of the meeting, Ambassador Ivan Dovganych expressed his personal feelings about the land and people of Vietnam and believed that Vietnam was an attractive destination for foreign investors. He pledged to give a boost to cooperative ties between Vietnam and Ukraine.