India and Vietnam's national flags.
Credit: iStock Photo
Mumabi: There is 26 per cent annual growth in Indian tourist arrivals to Vietnam as the South-East Asian country makes efforts to deepen its 2,000 year-old civilizational links with India.
Nguyen Thanh Hai, Ambassador of Vietnam to India, during an interactive meeting at World Trade Center-Mumbai, spoke in detail on the Indo-Vietnam ties.
“There is 26 per cent annual growth in Indian tourist arrivals to Vietnam. More than 5 lakh Indian tourists visited Vietnam last year and soon we expect this to touch 10 lakhs. Similarly, Vietnamese are keen to visit India’s Buddhist pilgrimages. The number of weekly flights has grown from 6 before Covid to 74 now and in the coming year this will grow to 82,” the Ambassador said.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, Dr Vijay Kalantri, Chairman, WTC Mumbai and President, All India Association of Industries (AIAI), said: “India and Vietnam should not compete with each other; but learn from each other and collaborate in complementary sectors. India can learn from the successful SEZ model of Vietnam for industrial development. India can allocate dedicated special economic zones (SEZs) and technology parks to attract investment from Vietnamese companies and also promote technology collaboration and joint ventures.”
The Ambassador said Vietnam is keen to deepen its 2,000 year-old civilizational links with India.
“Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh became the second foreign state leader to visit India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office for the 3rd term. This reflects the importance of India in Vietnam’s foreign policy,” Hai said.
“We are seeing remarkable interest from Vietnamese companies to invest in India. Vietnam’s electric vehicle maker VinFast plans to invest USD 2 billion in India. Also, we will soon launch a network of Vietnamese companies in India as many companies from software, agriculture, petrochemicals, airlines, electronics and agriculture are planning to invest in India. In order to deepen our commercial ties, the Vietnamese government has proposed to sign a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with India,” he added.
“Last year, Vietnam government’s commerce ministry sent a proposal to the Indian commerce ministry for a comprehensive economic partnership agreement to broaden our collaboration beyond goods trade to finance, intellectual property, services, investment and mobility. We are awaiting response from the Indian government. Also, both the countries are working to open each other’s markets for agro products such as grapes, pomegranate and other crops. The central banks of both the countries are working to operationalize alternative cross-border payment systems to facilitate trade settlement and other transactions,” Hai informed.
“Vietnam economy grew 7 per cent last year and it is expected to grow 8% this year. We seek India’s support in taking this growth to double digit. The Vietnamese government is committed to reduce bureaucratic red tapism and improve ease of doing business by adopting a slim, effective and efficient administration. As part of this effort, the number of ministries will be reduced from 19 to 14. Also, the number of local governments will be reduced from 10,500 to 2,500,” the diplomat said.