Strengthening Connection between Vietnamese and Azerbaijani Women-Owned Businesses

Within the framework of the working visit of the Azerbaijan Women Entrepreneurship Development Association (AQSIA) in Vietnam, the women-owned businesses which mainly operate in textiles, pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, education, information technology, food, confectionery and chemicals, etc had a meeting with Vietnamese businesses. The program was recently organized by the Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council (VWEC)-VCCI in Hanoi.

The meeting between Vietnamese businesses and the delegation of the Azerbaijan Women Entrepreneurship Development Association

This is the first business delegation of Azerbaijan to explore cooperation and business opportunities in the Vietnamese market and exchange experiences and knowledge on the business development of the two countries.

According to Ms. Mai Thi Dieu Huyen, Vice President of VWEC, trade relations between the two countries have increased rapidly since 2013, in which Vietnam mainly imports crude oil and oil products from Azerbaijan. The main export items of Vietnam to Azerbaijan include phones and accessories, computers and computer products, tea and seafood. Investment ties between the two countries are not yet available, though both countries have the potential for cooperation and investment development.

Ms. Huyen said that the two countries had the basis and potential to promote cooperation in many fields in the future. Vietnam can provide a variety of agricultural products, seafood, handicrafts, computers, etc. to Azerbaijan and vice versa, Azerbaijan can cooperate and help Vietnam in areas of strength such as refinery industry development, education skills, and leather industry.

However, according to Ms. Mai Thi Dieu Huyen, currently, Vietnam's export turnover to Azerbaijan still accounts for a very small proportion of the total import turnover of Azerbaijan. In order to further develop the bilateral economic-trade cooperation relationship with Azerbaijan, contributing to diversifying export markets in the coming time, the two countries need to strengthen the exchange of official delegations as well as business delegations in other countries and step by step promote trade promotion activities to expand the market share of Vietnamese goods in the Azerbaijan market and vice versa.

According to Azerbaijani Ambassador Shovgi Kamal Oglu Mehdizade, with a long tradition of good diplomatic relations, Vietnam and Azerbaijan have had many effective cooperation projects over the years. This event is one of a series of events that Azerbaijan organized on the occasion of the 100th birthday of leader Heydar Aliyev, who is revered by the Azerbaijani people.

“This meeting is highly symbolic and is the first step marking the cooperative relationship between the organizations and associations of the two countries. Today, women entrepreneurs play a very important role in life and the economy. The delegation of Azerbaijani women-owned businesses to Vietnam has many goals and cooperation projects with Vietnamese women-owned businesses. We hope next year we will welcome a delegation of Vietnamese women-owned businesses to visit and learn about the market in Baku-Azerbaijan,” said the Azerbaijani Ambassador.

Ms. Sakina Babayeva, Chairwoman of AQSIA, said that Vietnam and Azerbaijan are both prominent developed economies in the region and have a lot of potential for cooperation to develop economy, trade and economic development. However, at present, the cooperation between the two countries has not met this huge potential.

In addition, due to the far distance between the two countries, it is necessary for the two sides to enhance information exchange and sharing, including the cooperation of women-owned businesses. The start of the cooperation relationship of female entrepreneurs can lead to many successes in other fields and industries in the future, including diversifying cooperation in the field of transportation and logistics between the two countries.

“Creating a mechanism to exchange information on successful projects for women to implement will support and encourage cooperation between female entrepreneurs of the two countries. We look forward to finding out information, identifying potential areas and establishing direct business relationships with Vietnamese female enterprises. The AQSIA is ready to work closely with the VWEC- VCCI and support new initiatives for businesses,” said Ms. Sakina Babayeva.

In particular, the fact that the two countries are in the process of negotiating to implement a direct flight from Vietnam to Azerbaijan is one of the positive signals to connect and strengthen the cooperation between the two countries.

At the B2B networking event between Vietnamese and Azerbaijani businesses, female entrepreneurs had the opportunity to exchange information about businesses and products and learn more about potential cooperation in the future.

By Anh Mai, Vietnam Business Forum