The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Vietnam initiated signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) and Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) to establish cooperation between the trade promotion agencies of the two countries. The initial meeting between the two organizations was convened virtually.
Ambassador Prof. A. Saj U. Mendis accentuated that although there are immense opportunities to cooperate between the two countries, lack of coordination between trade promoting agencies is a compelling hindrance in arranging B2B meetings and exchanging trade delegations between the two countries, which are key to boost and elevate bilateral trade relations.
Ambassador Mendis articulated that the enhancement of bilateral trade would markedly contribute to the economic and commercial advancement of both countries, mostly Sri Lanka. Further, Mendis stated that along with bilateral trade, other economic activities such as FDIs, tourism and research and development, amongst others, too would get fueled and augmented leading to greater economic prosperity.
In 2023, Sri Lanka’s exports to Vietnam were around USD 35 million and imports from VietNam were USD 185 million, which is negligible when compared to Vietnam’s exports and imports with the world, which is around USD 360 billion and USD 330 billion respectively.
The proposed MOU addresses many areas of cooperation and collaboration which facilitates those difficulties and impediments. It is envisaged that this would contribute towards achieving the trade turnover targets of USD 500 million first and then USD one billion within the next 3 to 4 years, thus benefiting both countries.
Acting Additional Director General (Development) of EDB, Anoma Premathilake, expressed the willingness and enthusiasm of EDB to cooperate with Vietrade in future trade promotional activities and proposed to establish an Action Plan based on the MoU.
Exchanging the latest market information, exchanging trade and investment missions, Co- organizing trade promotional events, organizing training and technical assistance programs, exchange of experts, know-how and experiences, and supporting respective representative offices are some of the areas for cooperation under the MoU. The MoU was well received by Le Hoang Tai, Director General of Vietrade who remarked his anticipation to boost bilateral trade between the two countries based on this new cooperation and collaboration.
EDB Assistant Director Manuka Perera and Vietrade Official of International Relations representative Nguyen Duc Tung made a presentation on EDB and Vietrade respectively, which provided a comprehensive understanding of each organization. The meeting concluded with a positive note from each side for obtaining the necessary approvals to sign the MOU in due course. It is expected to sign the MoU in the forthcoming Third Sub Committee Meeting on Trade between Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
The MoU was initiated and the meeting was arranged by Embassy Minister Commercial Kishani Wickramasinghe.
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