Since 2010, two-way trade has doubled. Vietnam has been the largest trade partner of Italy among the ASEAN countries, while Italy is the third biggest partner of Vietnam among the EU members. Two-way trade rose 21% in 2021 to 5.6 billion USD in 2021, and 11% in 2022 to 6.2 billion USD. The figure hit 3.1 billion USD in the first half of this year.
The Italian government has put Vietnam in the list of 20 countries that it will continue to give priority to in promoting trade and investment to 2030.
The economies of the two countries are both similar and complementary to each other in terms of industries and products, thus bringing great added value as cooperation is intensified. Recently, Italy's increasing interest in the Indo-Pacific region in general, and ASEAN and Vietnam in particular has become clearer.
Italian businesses have shown increasing interest in cooperation in investment and trade with Vietnam - a partner with strengths in terms of a young workforce, competitive costs, a large consumption market, a dynamic business environment, and improved infrastructure.
In addition to traditional fields, the two sides have prospects for cooperation in new fields such as digital transformation, green economy, renewable energy, especially in the implementation of commitments under the Just Energy Transition Partnership to which Italy has pledged to contribute 500 million USD, according to the diplomat.
Collaboration in culture, education, science-technology, justice, tourism, sports, as well as people-to-people exchanges and local partnership continues to expand while bilateral ties in national defence, security, press, and theoretical and strategic research have also seen new developments.
