Mr. Mpetjane Kgaogelo Lekgoro,kqbd ana Ambassador of South Africa to Vietnam introduces the strengths of South Africa at the seminar

After 25 years, since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and South Africa (in 1993), the relations between the two countries have been constantly developing in many fields such as trade, investment, science and technology, culture, and tourism, etc. Bilateral trade between the two countries increased from USD 700 million in 2012 to USD 1.5 billion in 2017. South Africa is a major distributor of Vietnam with wood and products of wood, chemicals, plastic raw materials, different kinds of cotton yarn, and fertilizer, etc. On the other hand, Vietnamese goods exported to South Africa are also diversified such as footwear, textiles, coffee, rice, precious stones, and precious metals, etc.

Over the past five years, South Africa has invested more than USD 100 billion in infrastructure development and planned to invest USD 400 billion more over the next 15 years. This is considered a good opportunity for Vietnam to boost export, especially export of cement, a strength of Vietnam that South Africa is in high demand.

Over 50 enterprises of Hue and Da Nang participate in the seminar

At the seminar, delegates said that although Vietnamese goods and products were well suited to the South African market, the lack of information and exchange channels between the two countries' enterprises made consumers and enterprises in South Africa know very little about Vietnamese goods and vice versa.

Via the seminar, the two sides desire to promote trade, investment and tourism cooperation between Vietnamese enterprises and the South African market. More specifically, it is the opportunity for Hue enterprises to explore the market, partners, and start trading. The both sides expect that trade turnover between South Africa and Vietnam will increase to USD 2 billion by the end of 2019.

Story and photos: Duc Quang