Regional boost for Italy links

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Leaders from 10 Lombardy-based companies made visits to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s two biggest economic hubs, to seek business opportunities in industries ranging from automobile and motorcycle parts to textile machinery and furniture, paper, construction, and plumbing and heating equipment.

Located in northern Italy, Lombardy is the beating heart of the most economically-advanced region in Europe. Around 800,000 small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) are the driving force of the regional economic system, which operates in mechanics, machine tool manufacturing, design, fashion, biotech, energy saving, environmental protection, engineering, subcontracting, furnishings, electronics and food processing.

“The link [between Vietnam and Lombardy] was recently consolidated through an inter-institutional cooperation agreement, established during the visit to Italy of Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung in 2010,” according to Italian Trade Commissioner in Vietnam Marco Saladini.

“The agreement facilitates, promotes and encourages cooperation in a number of fields, including the development of SMEs, through commercial relations that enhance the competitiveness and export capacity of the companies involved,” Saladini said.

According to the Italian Trade Commission, bilateral trade between Vietnam and Lombardy stood at around $280 million in 2010. Bilateral trade has steadily increased with an average growth rate of 9 percent annually during the 2001-2009 period. Lombardy ranks as the 51st largest trade partner of Vietnam.

According to Nguyen Van Thu, chairman of the Vietnam Association of Mechanical Industry (VAMI), there were huge opportunities for Lombard companies to expand their businesses in Vietnam’s mechanical industry, which was their expertise. “Vietnam is focusing on the development of key industries including shipbuilding, automobile, synchronous machines, construction equipment and motive power machines”.

“Vietnam is targeted to satisfy up to 60-70 percent of local demand for those machineries and equipment until 2020. The mechanical consumption market in Vietnam is  very big and full of potential for other foreign partners,” Thu said.

Saladini stressed: “The mission offers a chance to bring the excellence of ‘Made in Lombardy’ goods to the large and promising Vietnamese market”.