CPEC offers lucrative investment opportunities: Vietnamese envoy

Gwadar Pro

Islamabad: Ambassador of Vietnam to Pakistan Nguyen Tien Phong said this week that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) offered lucrative investment opportunities.

Addressing the business community during his visit to Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), he mentioned that CPEC had played a great role in developing undeveloped areas in Pakistan.

He highlighted that Vietnam was importing many products including cotton yarn, medicines, surgical instruments, leather products, fabrics, chemicals, meat and mutton products, pet food, fertilizers and Pakistan should enhance exports of these products to Vietnam to take the bilateral trade to over US $ 1 billion. He acknowledged that Pakistan had a talented workforce in Information Technology and software and Vietnam has good demand for these professionals, so Pakistan can increase the export of its IT manpower to Vietnam.

He termed consistency, continuity, and stability as key requirements for Pakistan to attract foreign investment from Vietnam, ASEAN and other countries. He appreciated the ICCI plan for organizing the Pak-ASEAN Forum and assured that he would fully support it.

Speaking on the occasion, Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari, President ICCI said that Pakistan and Vietnam were enjoying cordial relations, but their bilateral trade was just around US $ 700 million in 2021, which was far below their actual potential. He stressed that the investors of Vietnam should explore business opportunities in CPEC and in other sectors of Pakistan’s economy.