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The successful third meeting of the Vietnam - Slovenia Intergovernmental Committee held in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana has provided a boost to bilateral relations across multiple fields, especially future trade activities.

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien (L) and Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tanja Fajon sign minutes of the third meeting.

The meeting was co-hosted by Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon.

The two sides presented the economic and trade development situation of each country, as well as various areas of mutual interest, whilst showing a keen desire to increase linkages, especially regarding the implementation of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. (EVFTA). Other areas of potential collaboration include seaport and aviation logistics, human resources, agriculture-forestry-fishery, economics and digital transformation, mechanical engineering, culture, and tourism.

The two sides reviewed the implementation of bilateral co-operation activities since the second meeting in 2019, in which two-way trade has increased 12-fold from US$46 million in 2012 to US$573 million last year.

However, they agreed that the current state of economic and trade relations fails to meet the full potential and prospects of both nations. Therefore, they underlined the need to ramp up co-operation in a multitude of fields, especially in economics such as trade, tourism, transportation, and logistics, with this being done to help Vietnamese goods access the Slovenian market in particular and the EU market in general, as well as vice versa, in a more convenient fashion.

Vietnam therefore proposed that the Slovenian side swiftly ratify the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

Both countries also consented to boost ties at regional and international forum, as well as maintaining the exchange of delegations, particularly ahead in 2024 when the two celebrate the 30th founding anniversary of their diplomatic ties. They then signed the minutes of the third meeting of the Vietnam-Slovenia Inter-Governmental Committee.

Within the framework of his working visit to the central European country, Minister Dien also co-chaired a roundtable on co-operation between the two countries’ enterprises with Marjana Majeric, director of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, who said that Slovenia's economy depends heavily on exports and Vietnam can be viewed as a potential market for Slovenian businesses.

At Minister Dien’s meeting with Slovenian Minister of the Economy, Tourism and Sport Matjaž Han, the two sides voiced their hope at the prospect of bolstering co-operation to improve competitiveness in the field of tourism, business development, and internationalisation.

Slovenia is currently looking for workers and is ready to co-operate in the fields of labour and sustainable development with Vietnam, Minister Han said.

The occasion also saw the Vietnamese Minister meet with Prime Minister Robert Golob who affirmed that Slovenia always considers Vietnam as an important partner and desires to push up bilateral ties across a variety of fields.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Austria, concurrently Slovenian, Nguyen Trung Kien attended the Intergovernmental Committee meeting and joined the Vietnamese delegation's activities in Slovenia.

According to the Vietnamese diplomat, the third Intergovernmental Committee meeting achieved positive results, thereby creating fresh momentum for bilateral relations across all fields, especially economics and trade.

Since the enforcement, the EVFTA agreement has contributed to creating outstanding developments in terms of trade exchange between the two countries, of which bilateral trade growth has always reached 15% to 20%, Ambassador Kien said.

Although the joint import-export turnover is not high, the trade turnover between the two countries over recent times has witnessed outstanding growth in both quantity and quality, of which the turnover next year is double that of the previous year continuously from 2013 to the present.

Over the past two years, despite the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and instability occurring in the world economy, the two countries' trade turnover has maintained a steady growth momentum, with an increase of 38.3% in 2021 compared to 2020 and 2022, a rise of 14.8% compared to 2021.

On the basis of the sound political and diplomatic relations over the past 30 years and with the good results achieved at the third Vietnam - Slovenia Intergovernmental Committee meeting, bilateral relations, especially in economics and trade, will grow and flourish going forward.

VOV