Bilateral trade showing positive trend: India's envoy to Vietnam

According to India's Ambassador to Vietnam Pranay Verma, both economies have many areas of mutual complementarity which provides a strong foundation for growth of bilateral trade, which has nearly doubled over the last three years.

"Both countries are at important stages of economic development, and their economies have a significantly high level of domestic demand and consumption of goods and services, which continue to make them attractive destinations for businesses," Verma told .

"Driven by these fundamentals, the bilateral trade in 2019 between India and Vietnam continues to show a positive trend," he said.

As per official data, the bilateral trade turnover had registered a record annual growth of 12.81 per cent and touched $13.93 billion in 2018.

The data for the period January-July 2019 showed that bilateral trade had already reached $7.5 billion.

Furthermore, the two countries have set a trade target of $15 billion by 2020.

At present, Vietnam exports mobile phones and components, machinery, computers and electronic hardware, natural rubber, chemicals and coffee to India.

On the other hand, India ships out meat and fishery products, corn, steel, pharmaceuticals, cotton and machinery to Vietnam.

On the launch of direct flight connections between India and Vietnam, Verma said: "Vietnam is an important trading partner for us in the ASEAN region. There are sizeable Indian investments in Vietnam.

"However, lack of direct connectivity has kept this engagement from reaching its potential. We are hopeful that direct flight connections will raise the level of our economic partnership by bringing our businesses closer and encouraging them to explore new complementarities."

Verma's assertion that direct flight connections between the two countries will give a boost to business relations has been corroborated by IndiGo's Chief Commercial Officer William Boulter.

Recently, IndiGo started daily direct flights between Kolkata and Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

"There is a massive potential on the routes between India and Vietnam. We foresee substantial traffic growth between the two countries. There are smaller carriers from Korea and other places that offer 10 daily flights to Vietnam," Boulter told .

"Similarly, as traffic between the two countries rise, we will also increase our flight frequencies to Vietnam from one daily direct flight to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from Kolkata," Boulter added.

Another airline Vietjet will be starting direct flights from New Delhi to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in December.

In addition, B. Subhash Chandar, Director for MICE and Asia Market for Asia Destination Management Company, told : "There has been a massive increase in India's presence in Vietnam for the last few years, especially after Indian TV serials were shown here. Indian culture and yoga have become very popular in Vietnam.

"Indian companies have slowly moved to Vietnam. From India, several garment, pharmaceutical, apparel manufacturers and restaurants have invested in Vietnam."

(Rohit Vaid can be contacted at rohit.v@.in)

( With inputs from IANS )