Accessing the EU through Belgium

How have Belgium and Vietnam strengthened their investment and trade ties over the past 42 years?

Belgium and Vietnam, whose co-operation prospects are very bright, established bilateral diplomatic ties in 1973. Since then they have developed rich and various partnerships. The two countries’ political co-operation is in its heyday, with frequent diplomatic exchanges.

The multi-faceted co-operation also includes investment and trade ties. Vietnam, which has become a middle-income nation, has great potential to become a major country. Belgium wants to support Vietnam in reaching that level.

The two countries’ trade has soared to more than 1.2 billion euros ($1.31 billion) per year. More and more Belgian companies have have declared their interest in this market. Vietnam exports its products through Belgian ports and airports to the European market, as Belgium is located in the heart of Europe and possesses top quality infrastructure and logistic services.

Belgium’s investments in Vietnam have been growing in recent years. Among the many ongoing projects, we can mention the Dinh Vu Industrial Park in the north-eastern city of Haiphong as a flagship project in the sector of port logistics. The project is carried out by the Belgian company Rent-a-Port to develop a major port in the north of Vietnam. Rent-a–port is also offering a feasibility study to clean the Ha Long Bay in the north-eastern province of Quang Ninh.

There is still a huge room for further bilateral trade and investment development. For example, Belgium with high technology could provide green technology to help Vietnam response to climate change.

According to statistics from Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment, Belgium currently has 59 valid investment projects registered with $420.6 million in Vietnam. This figure seems relatively small compared to the potential between the two countries. Can you comment on this?

Belgium is not a big country in terms of size but a trustful partner of Vietnam. I think such investment figure reflects Belgium’s great efforts in investment. At present, there are some major Belgian investment projects that are awaiting the green light from Vietnam’s authorities.

I take the small satellite development project with Spacebel as the contractor as an example. I strongly hope that these projects will be deployed soon in Vietnam. Remarkably, as a serious and trustful counterpart, once Belgium invests in Vietnam, other investors also want to join these investment projects.

The two countries have great potentials to further investment cooperation in the environment sector (water management, water and waste treatment) and logistics.

Furthermore, Belgium with its advantages like huge ports (Antwerp – the 2nd largest port of Europe) and freight airports (Liège freight airport was nominated as the best cargo airport in the world), its central position in Europe, top quality infrastructure and logistic services, serves not only as an excellent entry point into the European market for Vietnamese goods but also investments of

Vietnamese companies. The Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA), whose negotiations were recently concluded, is expected to be implemented in 2017 and will be the best opportunity to increase bilateral trade and investment.

How important is this FTA to the Belgian investment flow into Vietnam?

Being a member of the EU, Belgium wholly supports this FTA. This November will see a joint economic meeting between Vietnam and Belgium, at which the FTA benefits for the two economies will be highlighted.

This is a new-generation FTA which covers a broad range of sectors such as investment, trade, government procurement, services, copyright, labour rights, and environment between two complementary economies.

The agreement would certainly bring important opportunities for both sides. The agreement would facilitate investments by Belgian companies. More Belgian enterprises are seeking business and investment opportunities in Vietnam.

In order to take advantage of the opportunities that this agreement creates for Vietnam and Belgium, the two countries should promote the exchange of visits and contacts at different levels, and between our enterprises, in sectors that reflect our strengths and needs.

Will there be any change in Belgium’s official development assistance to Vietnam in the time to come?

In recent years, Belgium has provided Vietnam with about 500 million euros ($545 million) in development co-operation capital.

Still, as Vietnam has become a middle-income country and a dynamic partner, Belgium has decided to cease its bilateral governmental co-operation [in terms of this channel of development capital], and the current projects will be terminated by 2019.

It’s time for the two countries to develop a more mature partnership, with other tools and further cooperation in various sectors such as soft loans, university co-operation and tourism.