Workers load bags of rice for exports. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam always wishes to be a long-term and stable ricesupplier for Sierra Leone as its domestic production has not yet met thedemand, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said at a recent meeting withSierra Leone’s counterpart Edward Hinga Sandy.

Dien appreciated the latter's proposal for considering the re-signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on rice trade tostrengthen the legal framework for cooperation activities relating to thematter between the two countries. In particular, the two sides agreed to create conditions for their businesses in conducting riceimport and export.

According to Dien, Sierra Leone is🐬 like a promised land, andVietnamese businesses also want to invest in this market. The Vietnameseminister said he hopes to receive a proposal from the Sierra Leona soon and favourableconditions will be created for Vietnamese businesses when they pour capitalinto the country.

For his part, Sierra Leone’s minister emphasised that thecurrent trade relationship between the two countries is still relativelymodest and there is still a lot of room to promote bilateral trade,diversify goods exchange, as well as increase cooperation activities in otherfields.

He said Vietnam has made many strides in terms of technology,especially in the manufacturing sector, which is an area where Sierra Leone isaiming to learn from its experience.

Sandy said Sierra Leone wants to study the possibility of abilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA), saying Vietnam will havethe opportunity to expand the market to the African region.

As information about the Sierra Leone market is still very limitedin Vietnam, Vietnamese businesses do not know much about this market. Thus,the two sides pledged to strengthen the exchange of information on trade andinvestment policies, import and export management regulations, businesscooperation opportunities, the demands of the business community through theSierra Leone Embassy in China and the Asia-Africa Market Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Sierra Leone’sminister also suggested Vietnam encourage its enterprisesto invest in the country in the fields of manufacturing, agriculturalprocessing, fisheries, wood processing, textiles, cement and buildingmaterials production.

The two sides also agreed that there is great potential toexpand investment cooperation in Sierra Leone, thereby taking advantage ofexport opportunities to the markets of countries in the Economic Community of WestAfrican States (ECOWAS) and Africa in general.

The two ministers assigned relevant units to continuediscussing and developing plans to implement specific cooperation contents.

Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade showedthat two-way trade between the two countries has reached 51.5 million USD lastyear and a growth of 27 percent per year in the 2017-2021 period. Notably,Vietnam's export turnover ♑to Sierra Leone hit 50 million USD and the importturnover from this market was only 1.5🌜 million USD./.