ISLAMABAD: The ambassador of Vietnam, Nguyen Tien Phong, on Friday night appreciated the 10 per cent increase in trade volume between Vietnam and Pakistan this year.

“The trade between Vietnam and Pakistan jumped to $848 million compared to $794 million last year,” he said at a reception hosted for media that contributed to activities of the embassy of Vietnam throughout the year.

“Your export to Vietnam increased 55 per cent, which was good news for Pakistan and also for Vietnam. However, this year the total trade volume of Vietnam stood at $750 billion and Pakistan’s share of the slice was little. This is mostly due to lack of awareness of the potential of the business opportunities between the two nations.”

The ambassador said Pakistan exported more to Vietnam which was amazing because Vietnam utilised the raw material imported from Pakistan to manufacture finished products.

“We strongly believe in the policy that we will be happy when Pakistan is happy. We will be strong when Pakistan is strong and we will be prosperous when Pakistan is the same. We need to be reliable partners and friends. We make the future together,” said the ambassador.

Ambassador Phong said in the year 2023 Vietnam had many activities starting with interactions between foreign ministers of the two countries followed by the meeting between Pakistan’s the prime minister with the vice president of Vietnam in Kazakhstan.

The ambassador said the outgoing year was very special for Vietnam and Pakistan when the two countries celebrated 50 years of cordial relations.

He said Pakistan sent its first diplomat to Hanoi at a time when Vietnam was in a very difficult situation. “From then on, we have come a long way. In the last 50 years we have witnessed many achievements and seen relations grow. We have seen that people who came to us when we were going through extremely difficult times were true and reliable friends. After 50 years, we have firm and sold cooperation also for the years ahead and optimistic of further developments in political and trade and economics,” he said.

He appreciated the contributions made by media to Vietnam activities in Pakistan. “More important has been their contributions to Vietnam and Pakistan relations. We hope that in 2023, we continue to support and cooperate to help in building stronger relations between the two countries.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2022th, 2022*