New Delhi, Nov 19 (UNI) President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday urged Vietnamese and Indian businesses to partner each other for greater trade and investment, and technology collaboration, and inject fresh vigour into bilateral relations between the two strategic partners.

He called for more cooperation in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, textiles and IT sectors while addressing the Joint Business Forum organised by Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Indian business chambers in Hanoi.

"Agriculture has been a key sector of our cooperation involving trade, investment and training. India feels privileged to have supported the Vietnamese agricultural revolution through the establishment of the Cuu Long Rice Research Institute," said the president.

Vietnam is a very important pillar in India's Act East Policy and trading partner of India in ASEAN.

Both countries also share civilizational relationship spanning over 2000 years.

In the past eight years, there has been an almost four-fold increase in bilateral trade, to $12.8 billion in 2017 from $$ 3.7 billion in 2010.

"With both Vietnam and India on a strong growth path, we can expect this trend to continue," Kovind said.

The two countries are working to lift bilateral trade to $15 billion in 2020.

The business forum is an opportunity for the two sides to assess bilateral economic cooperation in the past time and further develop cooperation in investment, trade and tourism in the coming time while pushing up investment and export activities of Vietnamese enterprises to India and vice versa.

Vietnam and India have built and upheld effective cooperation mechanisms. The Vietnam-India inter-governmental committee for economic, commercial, scientific and technological cooperation has to date convened 16 meetings, with the latest taking place in Hanoi in August 2018.

The two countries organised their 10th political consultation and 7th strategic dialogue in New Delhi from April this year.

Defence and security cooperation is also an effective pillar of their comprehensive strategic partnership, as reflected through regular mutual visits between military officers and dialogues at the deputy defence ministerial level.

Defence ties have been expanded between their navies, ground and air forces, focusing on personnel training, defence industry and ship visits.

The two sides held their first deputy ministerial level security dialogue in July 2018. They have increased the exchange of experiences and information in criminal science as well as in the fight against transnational crimes, drug trafficking, cyber and hi-tech crimes, and terrorism.

As of October 2018, India poured $876.73 million into Vietnam, ranking 26th among 127 countries and territories directly investing in the Southeast Asian nation.

Vietnam, meanwhile, is investing in 7 projects worth $6.15 million in India.

Both nations are members of the ASEAN-India Investment Agreement within the framework of the ASEAN-India free trade agreement.

Vietnam and India have also boasted huge potential for tourism development. Almost 120,000 Indians toured Vietnam in 2017, up 30 percent year on year, and the number is expected to reach 150,000 – 170,000 this year.

India welcomes some 20,000 Vietnamese tourists every year.

Bilateral cooperation in oil and gas, electricity, nuclear energy has also recorded positive progresses.

President Kovind also addressed the Indian community in Hanoi. He said India-Vietnam friendship is civilizational and the Indian community in Vietnam plays an important part in promoting bilateral ties and creating opportunities for the local economy and society.

Cultural cooperation between the two sides has been boosted with the establishment of the Indian cultural centre and centre for Indian studies in Hanoi in 2016 and of the centre for Vietnamese studies in New Delhi in March 2018.

UNI SRJ