The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Vietnam initiated a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) and the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) to establish cooperation between the trade promotion agencies of the two countries.
The initial meeting between the two organizations was conducted virtually.
Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Vietnam, Prof. A. Saj U. Mendis, emphasized that while there are immense opportunities for cooperation between the two countries, a lack of coordination between trade promotion agencies has hindered the arrangement of B2B meetings and the exchange of trade delegations, which are crucial for boosting bilateral trade relations.
In 2023, Sri Lanka’s exports to Vietnam were around USD 35 million, and imports from Vietnam were USD 185 million, a negligible amount compared to Vietnam’s global trade volume of around USD 360 billion in exports and USD 330 billion in imports.
The proposed MOU addresses many areas of cooperation and collaboration to overcome these difficulties and impediments.
It is envisaged that this agreement will contribute towards achieving trade turnover targets of USD 500 million initially, and then USD one billion within the next 3 to 4 years, benefiting both countries.
The idea of the MOU was well received by the Director General of Vietrade, Le Hoang Tai, who expressed his anticipation of boosting bilateral trade between the two countries through this new cooperation and collaboration.
