Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnamese Minister ofIndustry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister AnatolySivak on March 23 co-chaired the 15th meeting of the Vietnam – BelarusInter-Governmental Committee on Economic, Trade and Scientific-TechnologicalCooperation in the form of teleconference.

The two sides briefed each other on socio-economicdevelopment in the respective countries, reviewed cooperation contents agreedat the previous meeting, and set out cooperation orientations in the timeahead, especially measures to facilitate the operations of their businesses.

In his opening remarks, Dien said the economic, trade,scientific and technological collaboration has maintained its strong growth,especially after the Vietnam-Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) Free TradeAgreement, to which Belarus is a signatory, came into force in October 2016.

However, the cooperation has still shown limitations,and yet to match potential and strength of each side, he said, stressing the needto set out specific, comprehensive solutions during the meeting to foster thebilateral ties.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Dang Hoang An, Vice President of theVietnamese Sub-Committee, reported that two-way trade still reached 168.8million USD last year despite COVID-19, up 131.6 percent year-on-year.

Of the total, Vietnam’s export to Belarus was 21.6million USD, a rise of 338 percent, while Belarus’ export to the SoutheastAsian nation was 147.2 million USD, up 116.6 percent.

By the end of 2021, Belarus had run three projects inVietnam with total investment capital of 32.25 million USD, ranking 67th out of 140 countries and territories investing in Vietnam.

Belarusian Deputy Minister of Industry Ogorodnikov Alexanderbriefed the participants on the implementation of the protocol on supportingthe production of motor transport vehicles in Vietnam, the construction of adairy factory by Minsk jointventure in Vietnam’s northern province of Hung Yen, and a cooperation projecton heavy duty trucks by Belaz company of Belarus.

The two sides exchangedviews on potential and measures to enhance cooperation in the fields of industry,trade, agriculture, science - technology, culture, sports, tourism and training.

In his closing remarks,Deputy PM Sivak stressed that Vietnam is always a trustworthy and importantpartner of Belarus in the region.

With contents reachedduring the meeting, Vietnam and Belarus will create mechanisms and legalframeworks to promote cooperation in mechanics, food production, technicaltransfer and pharmaceutical supply, and increase the bilateral trade, hesaid./.