Taiwan and Vietnam sign MOU on trade and economic cooperation

　On January 5, 2022, representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam and representative of the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei inked a memorandum of understanding on trade promotion and cooperation to boost communication of trade delegations and collaboration of business matching and further to build intensive trade and economic relation.   

　According to statistics, Taiwan is Vietnam’s 4^th largest source of imports, while Vietnam is Taiwan’s 7^th market of export, which reveals that Taiwan and Vietnam are intensely related to each other in economy and trade.  Moreover, Taiwan and Vietnam’s total trade in the period from January through November 2021 had been growing against the COVID-19 pandemic to reach USD18.1 billion, hitting a record high and seeing a year-on-year rise of 26%.  During that period, Taiwan experienced 34% increase in exports to Vietnam in an amount of USD12.5 billion and also 10% growth in imports from Vietnam in an amount of USD5.6 billion.  

　Taiwan has been exporting to Vietnam such products as integrated circuit, optical lens, printed circuit, processors and controllers, and memory, etc., while Vietnam has been exporting to Taiwan the products including cell phones, computers and electronic products, ready-made garments, mechanical appliances, and shoes.  The trade between Taiwan and Vietnam reflects that the two countries’ cooperation is based on their complementary and mutually beneficial investments and supply chains.  For the time being, there are around 4,000 Taiwanese companies in Vietnam and 80% of them are in the manufacturing sector, which mainly import mechanical equipment, raw materials, and components and parts from Taiwan.  Moreover, the electronics industry of Taiwan has invested heavily in Vietnam to also drive up exports of relevant electronic components to Vietnam for assembly and production.  

　After execution of this MOU, both countries will base their future cooperation on the existing basis to hold trade exhibitions and promote their respective high quality products (Taiwan Excellence and Vietnam Value) and to enhance business matching through exchanges of market information and communication of trade delegations.  In the meantime, both countries will begin personnel training so as to push forward trade cooperation and market development and also to equalize the bilateral balance of payments and boost the visibility of Vietnam’s agricultural and industrial products in Taiwan market.  (Released 2022.01.05)   

/CCS