Vietnam has advantages in exports to Romania

Romania is a potential market for the export of a number of Vietnamese products including tropical fruits (fresh and canned), seafood (frozen and canned), coffee, pepper, cashew nuts and pork, although Romania has a growing livestock industry.

Tropical fruits (fresh and canned) are among products having advantages of export to Romania - Photo: VNA

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), Romania has a rather developed livestock industry but the country has to import a significant amount of pork from other EU and European countries.

In addition, several Vietnamese products such as electrical and electronic machinery and equipment (household appliances, computers, and cell phones), interior and exterior furniture, garments and textiles, footwear, fibers, construction materials and sanitary equipment also have advantages of export to Romania due to a large demand for these items.

Another area that Vietnamese enterprises can take advantage of is labour export as a large number of labourers from Romania have migrated to other EU countries, resulting in serious labour shortage in Romania.

The MOIT forecasts that Romania will lack about 1 million workers in the future. According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Justice of Romania, non-EU foreign employees in Romania including both permanent and temporary workers reached 17,089 by July 2018, a record high number so far, of which China and Turkey are the two leading countries in terms of number of migrant workers in Romania.

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on labour cooperation between Vietnam and Romania in late November 2018 is expected to create favourable condition for Vietnamese employees to work in Romania.

According to MOIT leaders, the Governments of the two countries will make efforts to promote the signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement in a bid to boost bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and Romania.