Prague (VNA) – Vietnam and the Czech Republic have complementary economic structures, so both sides will benefit from stronger bilateral cooperation, said Vietnamese Trade Counselor in the European nation Nguyen Thi Hong Thuy.

Talking to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)’s resident correspondent in Prague, Thuy said Vietnam has strength in the production of goods that the Czech Republic does not produce or produces little such as light industrial and agro-forestry-aquatic products; while the Czech Republic is a powerhouse in heavy industry.

The bilateral trade has doubled in the past five years, from 1.04 billion USD in 2017 to 2.08 billion USD last year, she noted.

Phones, tablets, computers and electronic products account for the lion’s share of Vietnamese shipments to the Czech Republic, at about 40%. Their proportion amounted to 55.47% in 2021 alone. From the central European nation’s side, its top export earners to Vietnam is mechanical machinery, which made up 15% of the Czech Republic’s total goods volume sold to the Southeast Asian country in 2021.

According to Thuy, one of the advantages that can contribute to strengthening economic and trade cooperation between the two countries is the Vietnamese expatriate community in the Czech Republic. Concerning the percentage of population, the group has the highest density, evenly spread across all regions, most of whom engage in the retail, restaurant, import-export, and distribution businesses at different scales.

Vietnam is a gateway to ASEAN member states for the Czech Republic, while the latter helps link the former to EU nations, particularly Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Austria, she said, adding that the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) also brings about trade-investment incentives for their trade.

Thuy also pointed out a number of challenges facing the two nations, including geographical distance, increasing logistics costs, and the EU’s complicated and fickle system of import management policies/.