Vietnam and Croatia to raise bilateral trade to US$200 million by 2025

The agreement was reached during talks in Zagreb on October 11 between Vietnamese Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

The two sides held that although bilateral trade turnover has made great progress in recent times, it remains modest compared to the potential and expectations of both countries.

They agreed on a number of measures to enhance the efficiency of economic - trade - investment cooperation between the two countries, including establishing an inter-governmental cooperation mechanism, and implementing cooperation projects in potential fields such as maritime, transportation, light industry, clean energy, information technology, and innovation.

They vowed to work closely to take advantage of new opportunities brought by the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Vietnam-EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), striving to raise bilateral trade turnover to US$200 million by 2025.

Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan sincerely thanked Croatia for early ratification of the EVIPA, and asked it to lobby other EU member states to ratify this agreement, as well as requesting the European Commission to remove the IUU yellow card for Vietnamese seafood.

The two sides also agreed to promote maritime transport cooperation to make seaports become hubs for transshipment of goods between Southeast Asia and Europe. They consented to expand cooperation in the fields of education - training, labour, culture and sports, and tourism in the context that Croatia is going to join the Schengen free movement area and the Eurozone from January 1, 2023.

They underscored the need to review bilateral cooperation agreements to create favourable legal corridor for strengthening cooperation between the two countries in all fields.

Exchanging views on regional and international issues of mutual concern, the two sides maintained that all disputes should be resolved by peaceful means, on the basis of international law, especially the principle of respecting the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations.

Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan thanked the Croatian Government for creating conditions for Vietnamese expatriates to integrate well and stabilize their lives in the country, She also thanked the Croatian Government for delivering 60,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam at the end of 2021.

She conveyed the greetings and invitation of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to invite the Croatian Prime Minister to visit Vietnam at an appropriate time, and the invitation was accepted with pleasure.

Later the same day, Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan left Croatia for Kazakhstan to attend the 6th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA 6).