The second meeting of Intergovernmental Vietnamese-Slovak Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation

Under the Economic Cooperation Agreement signed in Hanoi on 16 October 2006, the second meeting of the Intergovernmental Vietnamese-Slovak Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation was held in Bratislava on 20 and 21 June 2017. It followed up the first meeting of 11 and 12 April 2013 in Hanoi.

This year's meetingin Bratislava was opened by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the SR Lukáš Parízek. On behalf of the Vietnamese party, the meeting was co-chaired by the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam Hoang Quoc Vuong, who also led the Vietnamese delegation.

According to the statistics from the Vietnam Customs Office,  the total turnover between Vietnam and Slovakia has reached  USD 450 mil., which represents the increase by up to 52% compared to the year 2015. Vietnam is the 14th most important partner of Slovakia in terms of trade turnover. The Slovak Republic is the second largest trading partner of Vietnam in Central and Eastern Europe after Poland.

The CEO and the Chairman of the Bank Board EXIMBANKA SR Dušan Keketi took part in the meetings on behalf of EXIMBANKA SR He sees the opportunity for extending the business activities in this country within the product portfolio of EXIMBANKA SR especially in the field of direct and indirect export financing and export credits insurance.

“We believe in working together to find  export and investment opportunities for Slovak exporters, as well as other relevant  business information about companies.  EXIMBANKA SR  also welcomes the possibility of presentation within various missions of business entities interested in import respectively export of the Slovak products and services,” said Dušan Keketi.

The meeting was held in the hope of improving the trade  with our export partner and the vision of huge export potential to the relevant territory. The Director of International Relations Department of EXIMBANKA SR, Silvia Gavorníková, presented a new concessional loans schema, under which Vietnam is considered as country eligible for official development assistance (ODA).

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong highly appreciated good conditions that the Vietnamese businessmen receive in Slovakia. At the same time, he asked Slovakia to accelerate ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) between the EU and Vietnam.

During the opening day both parties confirmed traditionally good standard of political relations between the SR and Vietnam, with certain potential in trade cooperation between the two countries.