Hanoi (VNA) – The formation of long-term cooperationframeworks such as Comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) betweenVietnam and United Arab Emirates (UAE) will provide the necessary foundationsfor the two sides to promote ꦆfuture cooperation, a Vietnamese officialhas said.

Through the CEPA, the UAE can become a bridge between Vietnam and other countries in the region, stated Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien during talks with visiting UAE Minister of State for International Trade Affairs Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Hanoi on June 5.

Appreciating the importance of CEPA negotiations in promotingbilateral relations between the two countries in terms of economy, trade andinvestment, the official said Vietnam always considers the UAE one of itsleading economic partners in the Middle East. He suggested that the two sides actively exchange tospeed up CEPA negotiations.

To further promote bilateral economic, trade and energycooperation, he called on the two sides to work closely toও successfully organisethe 5th ⛎meeting of the Vietnam - UAE Intergovernmental Committee, scheduled for this October.

The two countries should continue to exchange and completeinternal procedures in accordance with regulations to negotiate and sign the agreementas soon as possible, Dien said. He encouraged UAE businesses to consider investing in a numberof fields in Vietnam such as renewable and clean energy; chemical industry;supporting industries and material production; building industrial parksin a number of potential economic regions of the country. On this occasion, Minister Dien congratulated the UAE onbeing the host of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United NationsFramework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) and applauded its proposal to host the13th WTO Ministerial Conference next year. For his part, Thani bin AhmedAl Zeyoudi saidthat the UAE Government always considers Vietnam an important partner in theAsia-Pacific region and wishes to strengthen cooperation with the country in allfields. The official expressed his delight at the positivedevelopments in economic and trade cooperation between Vietnam and the UAE overthe past time. According to statistics of the UAE, the import-exportturnover between the two nations reached 8.7 billion USD, accounting for39% of the total trade exchange between the UAE and Southeast Asian countries. The UAE is currently an important transit market for goods from countries exporting to the UAE to re-exported to many countries in the Middle East, as well as othercontinents such as Europe and Africa, thus, creating favourable conditions forVietnam's strong products such as farm produce, textiles and footwear toaccess many other markets, the official said. He affirmed that he will continue to direct relevant units under the UAE Ministry of Economy towork closely with the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam and relevant agenciesto solve the issues mentioned by the Vietnamese side. Regarding the CEPA, he said that the UAE is ready to coordinatewith the Vietnamese side to promote the negotiation process for the early signing of the deal./.