Viet Nam, Slovenia foster collaboration in various areas

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and Slovenian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon co-chaired the event.

Tanja Fajon expressed her wish to create direct linkages between Viet Nam's seaports and Slovenia's Koper Port, which holds a strategic geographical location and is recognized as a leading logistics hub in Europe, in general, and the Adriatic Sea, in particular.

For his part, Nguyen asserted that Viet Nam stands ready to work as a bridge for Slovenian enterprises to get access to ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region. 

At the event, both sides reviewed the implementation of bilateral cooperation activities since the second meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee which was held in 2019. 

The two-way trade value increased 12 folds from US$46.1 million in 2012 to US$573 million in 2022. 

As the Viet Nam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) went into effect on August 1, 2020, the bilateral trade value has witnessed annual growth of 15-20 percent. 

However, the results achieved are still not commensurate with the potential and strengths of each side, they said. 

Besides traditional sectors, the officials discussed cooperation orientations in areas of common interests, such as transport-logistics, high-tech agriculture; human resource training; green transformation, digital transformation, and digital technology development; sustainable development, climate change adaption and cooperation in the fields of science, technology and innovation.

They vowed to enhance exchanges at international and regional forums, and all-level delegation exchanges, especially in 2024 when both nations are to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties./.