Vietnam and Thailand target 20 percent annual growth in trade, hoping toincrease it to 15 billion USD by 2020, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerceand Industry said.

At a Vietnam – Thailand Business Meeting heldin Ho Chi Minh City on May 14, Nguyen The Hung, Deputy Director of theVCCI's HCM City chapter, said last year Thailand became Vietnam'sbiggest trade partner in ASEAN after trade growth rose 9 percent to 9.4billion USD.

In January this year he said trade was worth 1.4billion USD of which Vietnam's exports - mostly mobile phones andaccessories, steel, and seafood - accounted for nearly 500 million USD.

Its main imports from Thailand were machinery, oil and gas, auto parts, animal feed, and pharmaceuticals.

Hungsaid the two countries have great untapped potential in trade, and manypromotional programmes have been organised with an eye on this.

Forinstance, a delegation of 10 Thai food companies on May 14 came to HCMCity to show off their products and look for partners.

PrasatsukNiyomrat, an official in Thailand's Department of Industrial Promotion,said the visit was also meant to obtain information for Thailand's smalland medium-sized enterprises about regional markets ahead of theformation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.-VNA