National assembly chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and Minister of agriculture and rural Development Le Minh Hoan met with the Belgian delegation to boost bi-lateral agriculture trade
Le Minh Hoan said that over the past 50 years, Vietnam-Belgium cooperation has been promoted in many fields, including agriculture and appreciated Belgium’s close cooperation and support for the Vietnamese agricultural sector. 2018 marked an important milestone when the two countries became each other’s strategic agricultural partners and the minister proposed to focus on promoting this strategic cooperation on the basis of effectively exploiting the potential and advantages of both sides.
To further promote bilateral cooperation, Le Minh Hoan suggested that the Belgian side create favourable conditions for the two countries’ agro-forestry-fishery products to penetrate into each other’s markets. According to the Ministry, Belgium is currently Vietnam’s fifth largest and most important agro-forestry-fishery trading partner in the EU. Agro-forestry-fishery products of the two countries are set up to be complementary and non-competitive.
Le Minh Hoan added that Belgium would continue to support the development of waterway logistics and cold storage systems in the Mekong Delta with Belgian technology to connect into a transport network of fresh agricultural and seafood products of this area to Cai Mep port, to Antwerp port of Belgium and other major ports in the world. In particular, the minister proposed that Belgium support Vietnam in developing cocoa products so that this product can be exported to Belgium and associated with this country’s famous chocolate brand.
