The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the HongKong-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce on November 21 signed an agreement tofurther expand investment and trade between their two businesscommunities.

Addressing the function, Executive Vice-President ofVCCI Doan Duy Khuong said: "The agreement will help both sides'enterprises strengthen business exchange and increase investment inVietnam and Hong Kong, and boost Vietnam-China economic and commercialrelations to an even a higher level."

Jonathan Choi, Chairman ofthe HKVCC, said: "Apart from the ASEAN + China, Japan, and Korea FreeTrade Area negotiations, Hong Kong in July this year began negotiationsfor our trade arrangement with ASEAN."

Bilateral and multilateralagreements combined with an in-depth integration of regional economicswill bring the East Asian region into a competitive and vibrant economicregion, said Choi, who is also Chairman of Sunwah Group.

Regardingbilateral trade with Hong Kong, Khuong said it had reached 4.96 billionUSD, a growth of 22.68 percent over last year. Of that amount, exportsfrom Vietnam were worth 4.11 billion USD, up 30.38 percent over 2013,and imports to Vietnam were 850.5 million USD, down 4.59 percent.

Theitems traded include clothes, textiles, accessories, leather and shoes,metal and steel, computers, electronics and accessories, machinery andtools, parts, fishery, rice, wood and wooden products.

In thefield of investment, by October 20, Hong Kong had 853 projects with acombined investment capital of 14.1 billion USD in Vietnam, he said.

Thesigning ceremony took place as part of the visit of Gregory So, theSecretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the Hong Kong SpecialAdministrative Region.-VNA