While addressing the business community at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Wednesday, Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President ICCI, stated that Pakistan and Vietnam have cordial relations, but their bilateral trade is only around US$ 700 million in 2021, which is far below their actual potential.
He said that the main reason of low trade was the lack of awareness about business opportunities between the enterprises of both countries. He stressed for promoting strong business linkages between the private sectors of both countries in order to explore all untapped areas of mutual cooperation in order to make significant growth in trade volume.
The ICCI President said that Pakistan and Vietnam can cooperate in many sectors including IT and software, agriculture, education, energy and culture. He said that both countries had been discussing a Preferential Trade Agreement, which should be finalized to boost bilateral trade. He said that Vietnam was an important member of ASEAN block and close cooperation of Pakistan with it could provide us easy access to the big ASEAN market. He stressed that the investors of Vietnam should explore business opportunities in CPEC and in other sectors of Pakistan’s economy.
