Illustrative image (Photo: kinhtetrunguong.vn)

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) reported that bilateral trade witnessed strong recovery in the first two quarters, hitting nearly 95 billion USD.

The orders from big markets has increased sharply during the period, leading to higher demand for machinery and material imports to serve production for export. As a result, Vietnamese businesses spent 67 billion USD on imports from China and raked in 27.8 billion USD from exports to this market, respectively rising nearly 35% and 5.3% year-on-year.

China remains the biggest supplier of materials for Vietnam, accounting for nearly 37.6% of the country's total import value in the last six months, according to the MoIT.

Thanks to such strong improvement during H1, bilateral trade is forecast to approximate 200 billion USD this year. The figure can reach 190 billion USD if the H1 growth is sustained during the remaining months, and even top 200 billion USD if better recovery is recorded.

Last year, the Vietnam - China trade turnover reached 171.9 billion USD. Of the figure, Vietnam’s exports stood at 61.2 billion USD (up 5.6%), and imports 110.6 billion USD (down 6.6%), respectively making up 17.3% and 33.9% of the country’s total exports and imports.

Businesses have quickly capitalised on advantages generated by the free trade agreements (FTA) with China such as the ASEAN - China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to benefit from preferential tariffs.

Insiders said they believes that room remains ample for Vietnam and China to expand trade ties in the time to come.

As scheduled, the 2024 China International Fair for Trade In Services (CIFTIS) will take place in Beijing this September, focusing on such service sectors as energy, posts and telecommunications, finance, education, culture and tourism, and supply chain. It is hoped to further strengthen partnerships between Vietnamese and Chinese businesses./.