SPEECH BY H.E. AMBASSADOR HOANG SY CUONGAT THE VIETNAM –SOUTH AFRICA INVESTMENT, TRADE AND TOURISM PROMOTION 2024

Ladies and Gentlemen,I have a great honour to welcome you all to the Vietnam - South Africa Investment, Trade, and Tourism Promotion 2024, with the theme “Hanoi Destination: Opportunities and Potentials for Cooperation”, co-organized by the Embassy of Vietnam in South Africa, the Government of Hanoi – the Capital City of Vietnam, and the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry. I am deeply grateful for your presence and for the time to join us. And a special thank-you goes to SACCI for your support and cooperation.Ladies and Gentlemen,The diplomatic relations between Vietnam and South Africa were established 31 years ago, but our bond can be stretched back further since the middle of the last century during our respective struggles. This relations is characterised by mutual trust and respect,cooperation, and sharing. Vietnam and South Africa has now been each other’s leading partners in our regions respectively. South Africa is Vietnam’s largest trade partner in this continent, with annual turnover of around 1.2 billion USD over the past five years or so, even during the Covid pandemic. In just the first 9 months of this year, statistics indicate that the number has reached more than 1.4 billion USD, surpassing the existing record of our yearly trade exchange.
October 20, 2024

SPEECH BY H.E. AMBASSADOR HOANG SY CUONG

AT THE VIETNAM –SOUTH AFRICA INVESTMENT, TRADE AND TOURISM PROMOTION 2024

HANOI DESTINATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND POTENTIALS FOR COOPERATION

- Her Excellency Madam Nguyen Thi Tuyen,Member of Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Hanoi City;

- Advocate Mtho Xulu, President of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI); SACCI Chief Executive Officer Alan Mukoki;

- Distinguished guests from the Presidency,Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.

- Business leaders from South Africa and Vietnam,

- Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have a great honour to welcome you all to the Vietnam - South Africa Investment, Trade, and Tourism Promotion 2024, with the theme “Hanoi Destination: Opportunities and Potentials for Cooperation”, co-organized by the Embassy of Vietnam in South Africa, the Government of Hanoi – the Capital City of Vietnam, and the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry. I am deeply grateful for your presence and for the time to join us. And a special thank-you goes to SACCI for your support and cooperation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The diplomatic relations between Vietnam and South Africa were established 31 years ago, but our bond can be stretched back further since the middle of the last century during our respective struggles. This relations is characterised by mutual trust and respect,cooperation, and sharing. Vietnam and South Africa has now been each other’s leading partners in our regions respectively. South Africa is Vietnam’s largest trade partner in this continent, with annual turnover of around 1.2 billion USD over the past five years or so, even during the Covid pandemic. In just the first 9 months of this year, statistics indicate that the number has reached more than 1.4 billion USD, surpassing the existing record of our yearly trade exchange.

Despite of such tremendous achievements, we have to admit that the economic link and cooperation between Vietnam and South Africa still hold a large room and enormous potentials which await us to unlock.

Distinguished guests,

Let me take this opportunity to just quickly give you some information about Vietnam today, after almost 40 years of a comprehensive renewal, in which economic reform has been at our focus.

With a population of 100 million, economic annual growth averaged more than 6% for the last 2 decades, making its GDP in 2023 reach 430 billion USD, Vietnam is now among the 40 largest economies in the world. This is thanks to the good policies to reform the economy, to be opened and linked to the world. Since we got the first modest FDI projects in 1988, foreign investment into Vietnam has unceasingly increased. As of September 2024, 151 countries and territories have brought to Vietnam with 41,314 projects, and total registered capital of 491.71 billion USD, of which only last year’s number was 36 billion, showcasing a trendy wave of foreign investment continuing to pour in the country. In terms of trade, Vietnam is a highly opened economy with import-export nearly doubling its GDP size, and the number for 2023 was 683 billion USD. Vietnam has been member of 16 Free Trade Agreements with 60 key economies in the region and beyond. For tourism which is an important economic sector of the country,Vietnam is ranked as one of the 6 countries with the world's leading international tourism growth rate. During the period 2020-2022, this industry was heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic but has gradually overcome difficulties to become one of the industries with the fastest recovery speed.International visitors to Vietnam reached 12.6 million in 2023 and are expected to be 17-18 million this year.

The reason why I did take your time into these statistics, numbers etc is because I do believe and want you to be persuaded and to be assured that there are opportunities for a better cooperation between Vietnam, a rising economy in Asia, and South Africa, the number one economy in African continent. The areas and sectors we can continue and focus on should be energy, minerals, electronic vehicles, pharmaceuticals,tourism, agriculture, education, manufaturing, and many others.

My dear guests and friends,

In our culture, the capital city is something very special. In Vietnamese language, we say “Hanoi is the heart of the whole country”.Hanoi is our heart not only politically, culturally but also economically. As a city with a thousand years of history, Hanoi is not only the political centre of Vietnam but also one of its two key economic hubs, with the other being HoChi Minh City. With its unique characteristics, Hanoi holds a special status and it is the only locality in Vietnam which enjoys a Law first promulgated by the National Assembly of Vietnam in 2012, named Capital Law. This law, which was mended few months ago and will be in effective from 2025, is expected to help facilitate Hanoi’s greater development in the time to come.

Having said that, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to have the high level delegation from Hanoi, led by Madam Nguyen Thi Tuyen, to be here today. I hope that this visit by the delegation contributes to the continuation of cooperation for mutual benefit between Vietnam and South Africa in general, and between Hanoi and provinces,municipalities and businesses in South Africa in particular.

Before concluding, once again I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry and all our partners, including the two Vietnamese sponsors for their support in making today's event possible. The first is Vifon Corporation, whose products of different types of instant noodles and spices are famous for their taste; and the other is Anam Restaurant, with Vietnamese authentic cuisine,which will be opened soon in Pretoria in 2 weeks.

My heartfelt thanks go to the Hanoi delegation, led by Madam Nguyen Thi Tuyen, for their dedication to strengthening the partnership between Vietnam and South Africa.

Thank you very much to many officials from the government departments and organisations of South Africa, the representatives from business community of South Africa; my special thanks go to the media organisations being here today.

Thank you to my joint team from the Embassy and SACCI for your quiet preparation, from behind the scene.

Let us join hands to seize the opportunities ahead and work together toward a future of closer cooperation and shared prosperity between our two countries.

I wish you all good health, happiness, and success. Thank you.