Participants at the event (Photo: VNA)Ambassadors and chief trade representatives ofASEAN, Mauritius, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, and Cameroon in Pretoria metwith Edward Liu, Managing Director of Conference & Exhibition ManagementServices (CEMS), on March 15, to discuss the event.
The event will include an exhibition, a businessforum for the African-Asian region, and business match-making meetings,focusing on education, environment, services, finance and business, food,retail, healthcare, housing construction, infrastructure building, informationtechnology, transport, water treatment, and tourism.
The expo, which will be held by SingaporeManufacturing Federation and CEMS, is expected to draw 3,000-4000 visitors andentrepreneurs.
ASEAN’s trade-investment promotion organisations,including the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency and the Vietnam Chamber ofCommerce and Industry, are partners of the AABE organising board.
Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Vu VanDung, who is also Chairman of the ASEAN Committee in Pretoria, said trade andinvestment between southern Africa and ASEAN has enormous potential.
The upcoming expo will create an excellentopportunity for businesses to embrace links and promote trade and investment,he added.
It will also help popularise ASEAN and itsmembers, including Vietnam, to South Africa and the southern part of Africa, onthe occasion of the 50th founding anniversary of ASEAN, he said.
Trade between ASEAN and Africa recorded anannual increase of 15 percent from 1989 to 2014.
Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore are thebiggest trade partners of Africa, while South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt are thelargest importers of the bloc.
Currently, 300 companies from ASEAN areoperating in Africa, mainly in agriculture, machine manufacturing, oildrilling, and urban development.
South Africa is the main market of Vietnam inthe south of Africa. Two-way trade reached about 1.1 billion USD in 2015 and isexpected to increase.
Vietnam ran a trade surplus of nearly 1 billionUSD with South Africa, mainly exporting mobile phones, footwear, computers,electronic products, and garments, while importing iron, steel, chemicals,cotton, fibre and fertiliser.-VNA
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