“Canada and Vietnam continue to deepen economic ties”
Minister Carr has been a dedicated business and community leader in Winnipeg, Canada for more than 30 years. He was a musician and a journalist before entering public life in 1988. In 2015, he was elected as a Member of Parliament and appointed Minister of Natural Resources. In 2018, he was appointed Minister for International Trade Diversification.
As Canada advances its ambitious trade diversification strategy, we count on the 45 years of friendship and productive trade ties with Vietnam to be at the forefront of our expanding Asian trade and investment partnerships.
Indeed, since 2015, Vietnam has been Canada’s largest Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trading partner. Bilateral merchandise trade continues to steadily expand and, in 2017, it was valued at more than $6.1 billion, up 12% over the previous year. While some countries look inward, Canada and Vietnam are choosing a different path.
Indeed since 2015, Vietnam has been Canada’s largest Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trading partner. Bilateral merchandise trade continues to steadily expand and, in 2017, it was valued at more than $6.1 billion, up to 12% overe the previous year. While some countries look inward, Canada and Vietnam are choosing a different path.
Expanding and diversifying our trade with fast-growing markets such as Vietnam is a priority for the Government of Canada. To remain successful, we must remain open to people and ideas. This is why Canada and Vietnam, along with nine other countries, signed the historic Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) this past March. We look forward to further expanding our trading relationship with Vietnam when the CPTPP comes into force. ASEAN and Canada have also agreed to launch exploratory discussions to examine the potential for a Canada-ASEAN free trade agreement.
Vietnam’s economy is dynamic, with GDP growth forecast at some 6.3% in 2018, and Canadians are keen to continue our partnership with such a vigorous economy. Vietnam’s merchandise exports to Canada averaged $4.7 billion annually in recent years.
Canada, meanwhile, exported goods worth $742 million a year to Vietnam, with more than half comprised of agricultural goods, and fish and seafood products. In addition, the number of Canadian companies pursuing business opportunities in Vietnam has grown, particularly in the areas of clean technologies, aerospace and defence, information and communications technology, forestry products and life sciences. A number of Canadian companies have established offices and manufacturing facilities in Vietnam to take advantage of the country’s growing prominence in global value chains.
Beyond these impressive numbers, however, an even better barometer of our expanding relationship is the burgeoning people-to-people ties between our countries.
Canada is proud to support Vietnam’s poverty-reduction and sustainable-growth agenda. Our bilateral program has supported the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises, and co-operative and agricultural value chains.
In each of the last two years, the number of Canadian tourists visiting Vietnam has increased by 16%. In addition, Vietnamese students ranked as the fifth-largest group of international students in Canada. In 2017, Canada welcomed over 14,000 Vietnamese students for six months or more of study at our world-class institutions, an 89% increase from 2016.
The Government of Canada recently launched two projects to help attract even more foreign students from Vietnam and Southeast Asia. There are many flourishing partnerships between Canadian and Vietnamese educational institutions that facilitate the exchange of students, faculty, curriculums, joint research and degrees, including, for example, joint executive MBA programs.
We also maintain our multilateral cooperation through ASEAN (along with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum), the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency and La Francophonie. This high-level engagement is another indicator of the positive momentum evident in the Canada-Vietnam relationship.
Canada looks forward to building on the foundations of its already strong relationship with Vietnam to keep working toward a future of economic prosperity that benefits citizens of both our countries./.