HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City wants to promote trade andinvestment ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as there is a huge room forboth sides for cooperation, according to a trade official of the cityadministration.

CaoThi Phi Van, Deputy Director of the city’s Investment and Trade PromotionCentre (ITPC), said the UAE is a focus in the city’s plan to bolster trade withthe Middle East and Africa. However, the country currently ranks only the 43rd out of 100 countries and territories landing investment in the city with nearly10 million USD in 11 projects.

Inaddition, the city’s exports to the UAE accounted for only one fifth of thetotal Vietnamese shipments to the nation.

Toexpand access to this market, the ITPC has arranged for two businessdelegations led by Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen ThanhPhong to visit the Middle East country in February and October this year.
 
According to Vice President of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) -Ho Chi Minh City Tran Ngoc Liem, there are many advantages for the city’sbusinesses when entering the UAE market, as the country facilitates trade forforeign firms through opening trade promotion events and encourages them toopen representative offices.

Ashraf A.Mahate, Chief Economist for Trade and Export Market Development atDubai Exports, said that the UAE is a market of great potential for Vietnamesecompanies, citing an example of an UAE firm that bought 20 percent ofVietnamese pepper bean output to sell in Dubai in 2017. Therefore, Vietnamesecompanies should increase trade promotion and linkage with this market.

In addition, the economies of Vietnam and the UAE are complementary, withVietnam serving as gateway for UAE firms to approach the ASEAN bloc while thelatter plays an important part for Vietnamese companies to expand their marketin the Middle East.

He stressed that the UAE, with only 1 percent of land serving agriculture, hasto import large volumes of materials and products for domestic production andexports. As the world’s third largest transit hub for international trade(following Hong Kong and Singapore), the country has great demands for goods tore-export to northern Africa, Middle East and Central Asia.

Asharf also mentioned the world’s lowest tariffs and free corporate income taxesas advantages for foreign firms doing business in the Middle East nation.

He said that Dubai Exports stands ready to help Vietnamese partners draw arational trade promotion plan. Also, the firms should open representativeoffices or branches in the country to enjoy more favourable tax scheme, andfinancial support.

In 2009, Vietnam-UAE trade stood at 500 million USD, and the value jumped 12percent to 5.6 billion USD in 2017. Regarding investment, the UAE is the secondlargest Middle East investor in Vietnam with 19 projects worth more than 27million USD.-VNA