He made the statement on September 26 at a virtual conference organised by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (VIETRADE) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the National Agency for the Promotion of Foreign Trade (ALGEX) to promote Vietnam-Algeria trade and business cooperation.

The two-day event attracted the participation of 88 enterprises from Vietnam and Algeria.

Algeria exports scrap paper, poultry meat, medicines and rubber products to Vietnam; and imports coffee, footwear, raw aluminum and aluminum alloys, printing machinery and equipment from the country.

A rice processing plant in Vietnam. (Photo: VNA) 

However, the bilateral trade value remained modest, and ALGEX suggested setting up appropriate mechanisms to identify prospects for economic cooperation and trade as well as to strengthen institutional collaboration between the two trade promotion agencies. Memorandums of Understanding in the field of export promotion should be signed and businesses encouraged to learn more about the other market, it said.

Vu Ba Phu, head of the VIETRADE, said that Vietnam always attaches great importance to promoting the traditional multi-faceted cooperation relationship with Algeria, considering it a top important and reliable economic partner in the African region.

Phu said he expects this online trade conference will create an effective bridge for businesses of the two countries to share market information and business cooperation to approach each other's market based on utilising the production and supply capacities of Vietnamese and Algerian enterprises./.