Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh met with Romanian Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Stefan-Radu Oprea in Hanoi for the 17th session of the Vietnam-Romania Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation. The PM thanked Romania for its support in promoting the conclusion and signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). He also thanked Romania for donating 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam in 2021 and creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community to stabilise their lives and do business in Romania.
Both host and guest were delighted at the growing relations between Vietnam and Romania in various aspects, such as politics, diplomacy, economics, labor, education-training, and culture. Two-way trade turnover reached 425 million USD in 2022, up 14.8% from the previous year. PM Chinh suggested that the two sides should determine economic-investment-trade cooperation as an important pillar in the bilateral ties.
PM Chinh proposed that Romania open its market for Vietnamese goods, especially agricultural and aquatic products such as shrimp, fish, coffee, and fruits. He also suggested Romania encourage other EU member countries to soon ratify the EVIPA and urge the European Commission to remove the „yellow card” warning on its seafood.
Minister Oprea agreed with PM Chinh’s proposals and expressed Romania’s readiness to be a gateway for Vietnamese goods to enter Europe. Tran Tuan Anh, Chairman of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission, also highlighted the ample room for cooperation between Vietnam and Romania, suggesting that Oprea should focus on boosting bilateral economic, trade, and investment cooperation, green transition, circular economy development, climate change adaptation, high technology, digital transformation, innovation, labor, culture, and tourism fields.
Relations between the two countries are also strengthened by the Vietnamese minority in Romania, which is a small but vibrant community contributing to cultural diversity, with a presence mainly in urban areas.
