MANILA -- Vietnam is organizing a forum on business and investment in the country to open new opportunities for Vietnamese businessmen wanting to invest in the Philippines, Vietnam’s National Assembly chairman said during a meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Malacañang on Wednesday.

“I want to report to you that tomorrow morning, we are organizing a very important forum on business and investment between our two countries, and I’m happy that Speaker Martin (Romualdez) also accepted my invitation to participate in the forum along with executives and business leaders from our countries,” Vietnam National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue told President Marcos.

“And I hope that will lay the groundwork for further strengthening trade and investment ties bilaterally. I suggest that we can work bilaterally and also multilaterally to address the challenges facing our region,” Chairman Vuong added.

In the ASEAN, Vietnam and the Philippines can work on the South China Sea issue, the Myanmar situation, supply chain disruptions, high inflation, impacts of climate change and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Vuong pointed out.

The two countries could also collaborate on digital transformation, cybersecurity, and other areas of cooperation, the Vietnamese official said.

According to Vuong, there is a lot of room for bilateral cooperation because the Philippines and Vietnam enjoy excellent political relationships that can expand cooperation in trade, investment, defense and security, education and training, science and technology, tourism as well as people-to-people exchange.

Chairman Vuong agreed with the President on the need to have a balance in trade, as he declared that Vietnam is planning to import more commodities and goods from the Philippines.

“And also believe that apart from rice trade, we can expand our current relations to the import and export of construction materials, particularly cement,” the Vietnam high official added.

President Marcos told Chairman Vuong that previous business and commercial tie-ups between Vietnamese and Filipino investors developed and strengthened relationships.

“So, it looks like those of us in government will have to catch up to the business community and strengthen and make the – find new ways to coordinate, to help one another, especially as we come out of this pandemic economy and with the problems that we are feeling because of the conflict in Ukraine,” Marcos said.

The chief executive also said he immediately agreed to go to Vietnam upon the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart, although there is still no definite schedule for such a visit. (PND)