Investment encouraging policies offered by the Vietnamese Governmentand localities were introduced at an economic forum held recently inDurban city, South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province by the VietnameseEmbassy in South Africa.

Addressing theVietnam-South Africa Trade, Investment and Tourism Promotion Forum onOctober 31, Vietnamese Ambassador Le Huy Hoang affirmed that Vietnamattaches importance to developing its multi-faceted relations with SouthAfrica, including KwaZulu-Natal province and Durban port city.

The Ambassador and Trade Counsellor Nguyen Hong Tien then answeredlocal businesses’ queries, clarifying Vietnam’s policies to attractinvestment as well as its support measures on tariffs andinfrastructure.

Besides announcing a list ofprojects calling for foreign investment from now until 2020, theVietnamese side also introduced the country’s outstanding exportsparticularly tra fish and rice as well as major tourist attractions suchas the World Heritage sites of Ha Long Bay, the ancient imperial cityof Hue and the old port town of Hoi An.

TheVietnamese representatives asked for further assistance from the SouthAfrican Government and KwaZulu-Natal province in granting visas forVietnamese enterprises.

Andrew Layman, ChiefExecutive of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said hisoffice is willing to serve as a bridge connecting Durban andKwaZulu-Natal businesses with Vietnamese partners, expressing his hopethat Vietnam will help South African businesses to expand their tieswith other countries in Asia.

Both sidesexpressed hopes that the two countries will soon sign agreements ondouble taxation avoidance and banking-finance in order to protect thelegitimate rights of their businesses.

In thefirst nine months of 2014, two-way trade between Vietnam and SouthAfrica reached nearly 900 million USD. It is forecast to hit 1.3 billionUSD this year.-VNA