Indian people like to discuss important business issues in person

TIN LIÊN QUAN
	Celebration of the 550th birth anniversary of Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji
	Vietnam's Month to be held in India

Mr. B.M.Anvar Sadath took a group photo with teachers and students of Thuongmai University. (Photo: M.H)

Relationship between Vietnam and India has become stronger throughout the years. And trade has played an important role in enhancing the partnership between the two countries. Please tell us about the main/important events in the relationship between the two countries recently.

In 2010, as the ASEAN-India free trade agreement came into effect, bilateral trade exploded to US$3.917 billion by the end of 2012, with Vietnam exporting $1.7 billion to India in 2012, an increase of 56.5% from 2011. As of 2015, bilateral trade stands at US$7 billion & both nations have agreed on a target of US$20 billion by 2020.

According to recent statistics, the bilateral trade between Vietnam and India in the first 10 months of 2019 reached US $ 9.42 billion, an increase of 3% compared to the figure of US $ 9.18 billion in the same period last year. In particular, exports from Vietnam reached US $ 5.80 billion, up 2% compared to US $ 5.7 billion in the same period, while imports from India reached US $ 3.62 billion, up 4% compared to 3.48 billion USD for the same period. Trade surplus in 10 months reached US $ 2.18 billion.

Therefore, bilateral trade is increasing steadily, but this figure has not met the expectations of both sides. The demand for investment between the two countries will continue to increase in the near future, since there is still large room for India’s total investment value in Vietnam. I think that the prospect of cooperation, business and investment between Vietnamese and Indian businesses is still very bright. Our leaders have determined to reach the target of US $ 15 billion for bilateral trade turnover by 2020.

In the current world of technology advancement, what are the trade opportunities between Vietnam and India?

I want to emphasize that, besides good political relations, economic cooperation between Vietnam and India has also developed very strongly. Indian companies have invested approximately US$800 million in Vietnam, placing India at the 27th position of the 125 countries that invest in Vietnam.

Cooperation in the science and technology (S&T) sector has been healthy and continues to progress and processing data within the framework of ASEAN-India cooperation. India has a good education system. Indian investment in Vietnam's education sector in the form of Indian universities like IITs and IIMs would benefit Vietnam. In the education sector, Vietnam receives approximately 170 scholarships annually from the Indian government. Additionally, several self-financed Vietnamese students travel to India for education.

Vietnam has also experienced a high-tech boom in recent years, creating momentum for the industry to produce several technology items at a higher level than before. Vietnamese factories have officially exported some products with higher gray matter.

We believe that, in order to seize the opportunity, Vietnam needs to focus on building a better business environment, perfecting the supply chain, investing in high-tech industries that India can be friends with.

There are significant differences in culture within different regions of India. Will these differences bring any opportunities or challenges to Vietnam businesses in the process of expanding investment into India?

India is a multilingual country with each of its states having different official languages. However, Hindi is the only officially recognized language in the country. While talking on India business culture, English is the most preferred language, which is followed religiously in every industry. Communication with foreigner’s highly advanced society and scores high on human development indicators with the highest literacy rate, will be additional advantage for Foreigner’s looking for investment India.

Indian people like to discuss important business issues in person rather than other means.

A good starting point to start a conversation with Indians can be a comment on the variety of Indian food, the Indian cricket team, Music or Indian history. Indians can spend hours talking about their country’s long and rich history, food and cricket.

Business relationships with Indians are often based on mutual advantage. Indians often value order, privacy and punctuality. In accordance with Indian society, Indian work environments are based upon hierarchies and formalities between various levels of management. Because of the impact of hierarchical Indian social structure, most senior person present should be greeted first in a meeting, followed by the next most senior and so on.

Regarding cooperation prospect between Vietnam and India, I highly evaluate the trade potential in electricity, electronic equipment, copper, precious metal compound, isotope, coffee, tea, nuclear reactors, boilers, iron and steel, rubbers, manmade filaments, medical apparatus, etc. Besides that, footwear and seafood industries have also been flourishing. Additionally, tourism is considered a high potential area for both countries since the number of tourists is increasing every year with a scope for further.

Thank you so much!

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