UAE plans to hold conference to promote investment into Vietnam: minister

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has plans to organize a large-scale conference in Vietnam to canalize investment from the UAE and elsewhere into the Southeast Asian country, says a minister.

The event is expected to draw the participation of leading businesses in the Middle East and worldwide as well as well-known speakers, the UAE’s Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri told visiting Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Welcoming the idea, PM Chinh asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment and other government agencies to coordinate with the UAE to organize this event.

Investment from the UAE remains modest in Vietnam. As of September, the UAE, the 28th largest economy in the world, had 42 investment projects worth a combined $74 million in Vietnam, ranking 52nd among 148 countries and territories investing in the country, according to Vietnamese government data.

On Sunday, after arriving in Abu Dhabi, PM Chinh met with several leading companies of the UAE, urging them to buy more Vietnamese products and invest in strategic sectors such as infrastructure development and management, seaports, logistics, and industrial parks.

At the meeting with Minister Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, PM Chinh called on the UAE to share experience and cooperate with Vietnam in the fields of innovation, digital economy, green economy, circular economy, and knowledge-based economy.

Chinh proposed that the two sides deepen cooperation and complement each other’s strengths in building institutions, developing financial centers and free trade zones, promoting research & development, as well as opening direct flights between the two countries.

The government chief also asked the UAE to increase the import of Vietnamese farm produce and support the development of the Halal industry in Vietnam, toward reaching a bilateral trade turnover of $10 billion.

During Chinh’s official visit to the UAE, Vietnam and the UAE will sign the bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) after just 16 months of negotiations.

This is the first free trade agreement that Vietnam has with an Arabic country in the Middle East, according to Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien. It will open access for Vietnamese staples such as agricultural products, consumer goods, seafood, and timber and wood products.

The UAE is the first leg of PM Chinh’s Middle East tour that includes official visits to the UAE and Qatar, attendance at the eighth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII), and a working trip to Saudi Arabia from October 27 to November 1.