Poland should be ‘gateway to Europe’ for Vietnam: President Duda

Duda was speaking at the opening of a Polish-Vietnamese business forum in Ho Chi Minh City, which is Vietnam’s largest city by population.

The event was attended by government officials from Poland and Vietnam and more than 160 businesspeople from both countries.

Duda said the meeting was a key item of his four-day visit to Vietnam aiming to boost bilateral trade.

He described Vietnam as an Asian tiger with an economy growing at a rate of more than 6 percent a year. He told the meeting that the Polish government considered Vietnam to be one of the five most promising investment and export markets for Poland worldwide.

"Vietnam could be a gateway to Asia for Poland, and Poland should be the gateway to Europe for Vietnam,” Duda said, adding that Poland and Vietnam enjoyed “friendly relations” and “close social ties.”

He referred to what he called a special Polish government programme aimed at micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises interested in doing business with Vietnam. The programme will run until 2019 to promote Polish investment and exports to Vietnam, Duda said.

‘Huge disproportion’ in trade

While Poland's trade with Vietnam is steadily growing, Duda said, there is a "huge disproportion" in exports.

Although bilateral trade reached almost USD 2 billion last year, Vietnam's exports to Poland accounted for three-quarters of that figure, according to government data.

Duda encouraged Vietnamese businessmen to buy Polish foodstuffs, machinery, mining industry products and farm machinery as well as electric buses, of which he said Poland is “one of the world’s leading producers.”

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR