Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Hoai Duong paid a courtesy call on Mexican Secretary of Economy Idelfonso Guajardo Villarreal in Mexico City to discuss ways to bolster the two countries’ economic and trade relations.

Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Hoai Duong (right) and Mexican Secretary of Economy Idelfonso Guajardo Villarreal (left) at the meeting. (Photo: VNA)

Secretary of Economy Idelfonso Guajardo Villarreal highly spoke of the Vietnam-Mexico trade relations in recent years that see a growth of 10 – 15 per cent annually.

Vietnam is now Mexico’s 8^th biggest trade partner in Asia-Pacific while Mexico is Vietnam’s 2^nd largest trade partner in Latin America, he said, citing the Mexican Ministry of Economy’s statistics that showed bilateral trade hit nearly USD 5 billion last year. In the first quarter of 2018, the trade was estimated at about USD 1 billion.

Idelfonso Guajardo also hailed Vietnam for its significant dedication to the conclusion of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and expressed his hope that Vietnam will soon ratify the treaty so it will enter into force in early 2019 as expected, to further facilitate the cooperation in economics, trade and investment between the two sides.

Ambassador Duong, for his part, congratulated Mexico as the first member state to ratify the CPTPP.

The Vietnamese diplomat also expressed his thanks for the efforts of the secretary and the Mexican Ministry of Economy in fostering the bilateral trade and economic ties that is important to Vietnam’s international economic integration.

He expected the Ministry of Economy to support the Embassy of Vietnam to connect enterprises from the countries, open the local market for Vietnamese high-quality products and encourage Mexican investors to do business in Vietnam, a market of more than 90 million people and a gateway to the Southeast Asia, paving the way for greater connectivity between ASEAN and the Pacific Alliance that comprises of Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile./.

VNF/VNA