50 years of our diplomatic ties with Vietnam

Fifty years ago, today following the end of Bangladesh�s war of independence, Vietnam was one of the first countries of officially recognising the independent state of the people�s republic of Bangladesh starting a prolonged and successful diplomatic relationship. Now Bangladesh and Vietnam enjoy an excellent traditional friendship on the basis of historical similarities and the shared values of independence, peace and mutual-cooperation and share the same vision of development and a strong relationship with much more scope for deepening in the future. These relations have a history, stretching back not only to fifty years of diplomatic relations and diplomatic ties since 11th February, 1973, but to nearly thousand years of interactions.

During colonial times, people from both countries showed their sympathy and supported each other and prominent leaders from both countries had personal contacts even before independence. Bangladesh has also supported Vietnam in several wars in the past and the political, social &economic relationship between the two countries has been strengthened through visits by the respective leaders. Apart from bilateral ties, political relations are good between the two governments and the ruling parties. Now, a day�s most of the business leaders of both countries are enjoying better economic facilities by exchanging the views on trade and investment mechanism for uplifting of economic growth.

Bangladesh and Vietnam are two faithful, helpful and mutually benefited countries and this relationship has contributed in socioeconomic development, culture, education, infrastructure, logistic support, know-how, knowledge transfer, migration, trade, and human resource exchange, capacity building of the institutions and in many more areas. Both the countries people are friendly, hospitable generous, intelligent, good-humoured, gentle, well dressed, tasteful,   and family oriented.
Bangladesh and Vietnam are characterized by open market economy as well as an open trade policy, a less inexpensive workforce and generous incentives to foreign firms contributed to both countries success and despite a Covid-19, the economy have remained resilient, expanding by 7.10% and 8.00% respectively in 2022, which was the highest rates in the world and the GDP growth of Bangladesh and Vietnam are expected at 6.8% and 6.7% respectively in 2023. Within a short span of time on bolstering cooperation in the field of trade and investment need to increase the existing annual trade volume from around$1.5 billion to more than$2 billion by 2023 to sustain economic growth at the desired rate, Vietnam  and Bangladesh needs to increase productivity by 2- 3% every year.

Bangladesh attaches utmost importance to its bilateral ties with Vietnam and the two countries are close partners in multiple areas.  They want to work closely to enhance the bilateral trade volume and enhance the ways to double the bilateral trade volume in near future. The countries  have tremendous potentiality to negotiate or discuss trade and investment issues and  focus on priority areas including agricultural trade,  promotion of trade in jute and jute goods, trade in halal products, development of blue  ocean economy & Costal  economic zones, pharmaceutical exports from Bangladesh to Vietnam, Vietnamese investment in Bangladesh�s Special Economic Zones,  bilateral cooperation in ICT and electronics, textile and garments sectors, trade in software services, tourism sector, direct air link, opening of commercial banks in  both sides as well as   education and health sector cooperation.

The government of Bangladesh wants Bangladesh to be a gateway for the digital world and has started multiple initiatives to develop a skilled, equipped and digital-ready pool of talent. Vietnam is keen to help Bangladesh develop skilled manpower for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) because Vietnam has the second largest pool of information communication technology (ICT) &human resource in Asia. A large number of ICT graduates from universities, colleges, vocational institutes enter the job market each year in Vietnam. From that point, Vietnam can help Bangladesh to develop ICT skilled manpower and the Vietnam�s ICT companies to consider about the possibility of long-term investments in Bangladesh to utilize local IT-skilled workforce, as well as to provide more scholarships in ICT sector for Bangladeshi students and vice versa.

Bangladesh and Vietnam are on a roll. They have benefitted most due to  the shifting of apparel and footwear exports from China and found that in 2022 , both the  countries� combined of apparel and footwear export to the US and the EU equalled half of china�s share. To attain achieve targeted shares, basic manufacturing items and diversified products should be more emphasized for both countries to become a modern industrial countries with upper middle income by 2030 and a developed high income  nations by near 2047.

 Both countries have high potential in the readymade garment (RMG), leather sectors , Agro processing industries and Agricultural products are also need to adopt cutting edge technology to compete in the international market and the cooperation will be beneficial for both nations and in near future   will become an export based  countries.

Vietnam is one of the members of ASEAN which has ASEAN free trade area to enjoy benefits through easy market access at the reduced tariff rates and non-tariff measures as a member state of ASEAN, along with FTA countries with EU, Eurasian economic union, Chile, Korea & Japan and Comprehensive and progressive signatory agreement for Trans �Pacific Partnership and the Regional Economic Partnership Agreement. Bangladesh should follow the Vietnam�s model to sign a FTA agreement with her and also sign with different counties for FTA in the world.

Vietnam can invest Vietnam's investment in Special Economic Zones and Hi-tech Parks throughout Bangladesh, where attractive incentive packages are being offered to foreign investors because rate of return through investment in Bangladesh is one of the highest in the Asian region.

The future of Bangladesh-Vietnam relations is extremely promising for existing a strong foundation of historical relations between the two countries, have immense potential in terms of economic relations, given how both are the fastest growing economies, significant poverty reduction and fairly low  governments debt; both the emerging countries are situated in Asia, a dynamic region.  It is noted that Bangladesh is the key strategic location in the business hub and a member of BIMSTEC. Strategically Vietnam is also an important business hub and a member of ASEAN .Both the countries can enjoy the full business facilities and benefit of trade and investment than the other.

Bangladesh Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been playing an important role to develop the business between the two countries.  In the past, business delegations of BVCCI visited several times to Vietnam as to explore business opportunities & to enhance bilateral trade and commerce between the two countries.. Accordingly they have organized a lot of seminars to boost up the business and it works nicely since time to time.

 So, both Bangladesh and Vietnam are on the verge of further economic expansions in terms of export-import, investment and economic integration. This common interest between Bangladesh and Vietnam should render closer bilateral economic & diplomatic ties that would enable receiving the goals on or before the targeted timeline.


-    The writer is a Director of Bangladesh Vietnam chamber of commerce and industry