A workshop has been held in the central province of Khanh Hoa, aiming to boost trade cooperation between the central provinces of Vietnam and India.

Dinh Van Thieu, vice chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said the workshop aims to promote the connection, information exchange and cooperation between enterprises of the two countries.

He said that the central region wants to expand markets for its products, especially seafood, Thieu said.

Addressing the event which was held in both in-person and virtual forms, Madan Mohan Sethi, Consul General of India in Ho Chi Minh City said the number of Indian products imported by Vietnam is on the rise and vice versa.

Sethi said there will be more cooperative opportunities between the two sides in the future.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, two-way trade between the two countries reached US$13.2 billion last year, up 36% compared with that of 2020, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The figure is expected to reach US$15 billion this year.

In the first three months of this year, bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and India reached US$4 billion, a 24% year-on-year increase. Specifically, Vietnam exported US$2 billion worth of products to India and spent US$2 billion on imports from this country, an increase of 17% and 31%, respectively, against last year’s figures.

Vietnam is now India’s 18th largest trade partner globally and the fourth largest in the ASEAN while India is the seventh-largest trade partner and the seventh most prominent exporter and the ninth largest importer of the country.

At the workshop, representatives from India introduced the country's seafood processing and agricultural products, which are considered its key export earners. India will hold many programmes to popularise its products to Vietnam in the coming time and seek Vietnamese partners, they said.

Officials from the Departments of Industry and Trade of the central provinces also provided information about their markets and demands to Indian enterprises. They also hoped to promote trade relations with Indian firms.

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