Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh led a delegation tovisit Malaysia from June 11-12 in a bid to promote economic cooperationbetween the two countries.

During the visit, the Vietnameseguests met with their counterparts from the Malaysian ministries ofagriculture and agro-based industry, international trade and industryand the Malaysia Import Agent, during which they analysed opportunitiesto further forge links.

The two sides focused their discussionon how to speed up the implementation of contracts on exporting ricefrom Vietnam to Malaysia, while agreeing plans to enhance and expandbilateral cooperation in the coming time.

According to DeputyMinister Anh, Vietnam -Malaysia relations have seen fine development inall fields, including economic and trade ties. The two sides hope toupgrade their bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership in thecoming time.

Malaysia is now Vietnam’s third largest tradepartner within ASEAN, while Vietnam is the fifth biggest economicpartner of Malaysia in the region.

Two-way trade between the twonations has recorded strong growth in recent years, from over 4 billionUSD in 2009 to more than 9 billion USD five years later, and the figureis expected to reach 11 billion USD in 2015.

Anh said Vietnamconsiders Malaysia a strategic market in Southeast Asia, as the countryhas an import-export structure well aligned with Vietnam’s exports,especially rice.

Moreover, both Vietnam and Malaysia arejoining in the negotiation process of the Trans-Pacific Partnership(TPP) agreement, which is expected to help further bolster economic tiesbetween them.-VNA