Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien (R) and Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam Ann Måwe (photo: VNA)

At their meeting in Hanoi, Dien said the export structures of Vietnam and Sweden are complementary to each other, which is favourable conditions for their businesses to enhance partnerships and diversify supply chains, particularly of the commodities matching a country’s strength and the other’s demand such as apparel, footwear, wood products, tropical farm produce, and aquatic products of Vietnam and chemicals, pharmaceuticals, paper products, electronic devices, and machinery of Sweden.

Sweden is a high-income country with strong purchasing power as seen in Vietnam’s exports to the European nation exceeding 1 billion USD annually and keep growing. He proposed that they should capitalise on the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

Måwe said that Sweden always hopes to strengthen ties with Vietnam in the fields of energy and sustainable development. As of the end of March, Sweden had 103 valid investment projects worth over 680 million USD in Vietnam, ranking 29th among 143 countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian nation.