Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is looking forward toMalaysia’s support to develop Halal food industry, contributing to lifting thebilateral trade to 18 billion USD by 2025, Ministry of Industry and TradeNguyen Hong Dien told his Malaysian counterpart Mohamed Azmin Ali during theirrecent meeting in Hanoi.

Malaysian Minister of International Trade and Industry Mohamed AzminAli is accompanying his Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on anofficial visit to Vietnam from March 20 – 22.

The minister said the global Halal marketis growing robustly, with its total value reaching around 2.44 trillion USD in 2018.Some 56 percent of the figure – or over 1.36 trillion USD – comes from food andbeverages, which is expected to expand 6.3 percent annually to exceed 1.97trillion USD by 2024, he added.

Malaysian enterprises stand ready to share experience andexpertise to help those from Vietnam gain broader access to Halalcertification, the official stressed.

He further said that since Vietnam expects to welcome manyforeign visitors who consume Halal-certified products during the upcoming SEAGames 31, the event will be an opportunity for the two countries to togetherbuild a Halal ecosystem matching both sides’ potentials.

During the meeting, the two ministers also discussed the Vietnam-Malaysia joint committee for trade, deemed as an effectivecooperation mechanism. As a result of COVID-19 impacts, it had to cancel routine meetings, so Minister Dien, as itsco-chairman, proposed the two sides promptly prepare for its officialmeeting by finalising the programme and pushing for technical meetings.

The Malaysia minister also said he hopes the committee’s annualmeeting to be held as soon as possible and suggested the two countries to lookinto ways to narrow Malaysia’s trade deficit with Vietnam.

Malaysia is currently Vietnam’s second largest trade partnerin ASEAN and ninth globally. Meanwhile, Vietnam is Malaysia’s third biggesttrade partner.

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade shows that thetwo-way trade hit 12.5 billion USD last year, up 25.3 percent compared to 2020.

Vietnam mostly ships to Malaysia phones and parts, crudeoil, rice, coffee and seafood and mainly imports computers and electronics,machinery, oil and gas, household appliances and chemicals.

In the first two months of 2022, the bilateral trade neared 2.2 billion USD, up 20 percent year-on-year.

Malaysia now operates 668 FDI projects, worth 13 billionUSD, in Vietnam, making it Vietnam’s second largest investor in ASEAN afterSingapore and tenth of the 140 countries and territories all over the world./.