Hanoi (VNA) – A delegation from the VietnameseTrade Office in Algeria and Tunisia is making a working trip to Tunis from October31 to November 5 to discuss the current state of trade cooperation betweenVietnam and Tunisia and measures to promote bilateral relations.

Trade Counselor Hoang Duc Nhuan joined working sessions with officials of the Tunisian Ministry of Trade and Export Development and of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Migration and OverseasTunisians. He also met with President of the TunisianConfederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA) Samir Majoul.

On November 2, the delegation and UTICA jointly held awebinar for trade networking, with the participation of representatives fromseveral Tunisian ministries and industries as well as 60 companies from bothcountries.

Addressing the event, UTICA Vice President Slim Ghorbelcalled on Vietnamese businesses to invest, collaborate, and partner withTunisian peers in such fields as processing industries, new technologies, and marinefish farming. These would enable the sides to leverage Tunisia's strategiclocation, abundant resources, modern infrastructure, and highly skilled labour forexports to other countries in the region.

He also suggested Vietnam should consider importingTunisia's strong products like dates, olive oil, and phosphates. UTICA plans tosend a trade promotion delegation to Vietnam in the first half of 2024 toorganise a business forum between the two countries and showcase Tunisia'sstrong products.

Commercial collaboration remainsmodest and has fallen short of its potential, so the Vietnamese diplomat attributedthis to inadequate interest of business communities in each other'smarkets.

Tunisia's trade mainly focuses on the EU and Africa dueto geographical proximity and existing free trade agreements. To promotebilateral economic relations and trade, Vietnam and Tunisia need to activelyrun promotional activities and raise awareness on potentialsand strengths, Nhuan recommended.

Trade between the two reached approximately 66 million USD lastyear and close to 70 million USD in the first nine months of 2023. Vietnamexported raw coffee, pepper, cashews, fishery products, and machineryto Tunisia, while importing seafood, dates, chemicals, plastics, clothing, andanimal feed ingredients from the market.

The countries signed a trade agreement in 1994, in which theycommitted to granting each other most favoured nation status, an economic,cultural, scientific and technical cooperation agreement in 1999, and a frameworkagreement on agricultural cooperation in 2002./.