HCM City (VNA) – Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) aretwo potential markets in the Middle East which Vietnamese enterprises couldbegin intensifying their exports to, heard a workshop held in Ho Chi Minh Cityon September 25.

The workshop was jointly organised by the city’s Investment& Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC) and the Kuwaiti Consulate General in thecity.

Pham Thiet Hoa, ITPC Director, said that the UAE and Kuwaitbelong to the six-strong Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which has been assessedas holding much potential for cooperation in trade and investment with Vietnam.

The UAE is the second biggest economy in the Middle East,playing a pivotal role as a commercial and financial centre in the region, and theworld’s third largest re-export centre.

The UAE’s import turnover reached 265 billion USD in 2017.However, Vietnam’s exports to the country were valued at just over 5 billionUSD, accounting for only just under 2 percent of the market share, Hoa said.

He suggested Vietnamese enterprises step up their exports ofseafood, pepper, cashew nuts, coffee, vegetables, fruit, garment and textiles,footwear, and construction materials to the Middle Eastern nation.

Kuwait is a wealthy country in the Middle East which importsalmost all kinds of goods, noted Hoa. Its import turnover hits around 30billion USD each year, of which Vietnam’s exports are worth 70-75 million USD,or 0.25 percent of the total.

Therefore, there remains huge potential for Vietnamesebusinesses to export goods to this market, he added.

Jasem Abomarzouq, Kuwaiti Deputy Consul General, said thattrade ties between Kuwait and Vietnam are developing strongly.

With bilateral trade at 350 million USD in 2017, the figureenjoyed a four-fold rise to 1.43 billion USD in the first eight months of 2018.Of the total, only 54 million USD came from Vietnamese exports.

He said that due to unfavourable conditions in land andlabour force, Kuwait and other GCC nations – namely the UAE, Saudi Arabia,Quatar, Bahrain, and Oman – have a huge demand for imported food, food stuffs,seafood, construction materials, machinery, automobiles, and garments andtextiles.

This is a big chance for Vietnamese enterprises, especiallythose exporting agricultural products and seafood, he affirmed.

However, he stressed the need for enterprises to payattention to ensure their products meet Muslim-specific requirements.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hang, a representative from the HalalCertification Agency in Vietnam, stated that Halal certification is the mostsimple and trustworthy way to prove that the origin of materials is suitable toMuslim consumers.

With the certification, Vietnamese products will have morechance to compete with other products in the Middle East and the world atlarge, she said.

At the event, enterprises with experience in exportingproducts to the Middle Eastern market also advised that when accessing thesemarkets, businesses should be selective in assigning male workers to liaisewith partners from the region. –VNA