Conference explores trade, investment chances for Mekong Delta, Taiwanese firms

A business matching conference was held in Can Tho city recently to boost trade and investment links between the Mekong Delta and China’s Taiwan.

Local potential, strengths, investment opportunities, and priority projects calling for investment were introduced at the November 11 event, during which information about the Taiwanese market and its standards was also provided.

Taiwan has been a large trade and investment partner of Vietnam over the past years.

Between 1988 and September 2020, it poured over 33.2 billion USD into 2,771 projects in Vietnam, mostly in processing, manufacturing, and construction, ranking fourth among the countries and territories investing in the country, following the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Singapore.

Meanwhile, between 1952 and September this year, Vietnamese firms invested 68.51 million USD in 281 projects in the Chinese territory, mainly in wholesale, retail, machinery production, and accommodation and food services.

Bilateral trade increased 19.4 percent year on year to 19.56 billion USD in 2019, including over 15.1 billion USD of Vietnam’s imports from Taiwan. The figure was over 13.4 billion USD in the first eight months of 2020, up 6.2 percent from a year earlier.

Nguyen Thi Phuong Linh, Deputy Director of the Can Tho branch of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said there had been 1,699 foreign invested projects worth 23.03 billion USD in the Mekong Delta as of the end of 2019. 

Taiwan accounted for about 13.6 percent of the total foreign investment in the region, ranking fourth. Its businesses’ projects operate mainly in apparel, processing, manufacturing, and footwear industries.

Director of the Can Tho Department of Industry and Trade Nguyen Minh Toai said via the conference, his city wishes to boost cooperation to promote the export of key agricultural products of the city and the Mekong Delta like rice, aquatic products, processed farm produce, and canned fruit. It also hopes to maintain connectivity between foreign businesses and investors and local firms and specialised agencies./.

VNA