Cooperative relations between business communities in China and Vietnam have been progressing soundly, making contribution to the development of the overall ties between the two countries, officials said Wednesday in Hanoi.

Since 2004, China has been the biggest trading partner, the biggest importer and the third biggest exporter of Vietnam, and their two-way trade can, this year, reach 10 billion U.S. dollars, the target set for 2010, Hu Qianwen, Chinese ambassador to Vietnam, addressed at the Vietnam-China Business Forum on Wednesday.

After Vietnam joins the World Trade Organization, its market and investment environment will be expanded and improved, which will result in bigger Chinese investment in the country, Hu said, noting that China had, by the end of August, 382 valid projects with total registered capital of 805 million dollars in Vietnam.

Bilateral and multilateral cooperative programs such as the establishment of the China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Free Trade Area, two economic corridors and a belt involving in Chinese and Vietnamese localities, and the organization of China-ASEAN trade fairs and China-Vietnam business forms have created favorable conditions for Chinese and Vietnamese enterprises to bolster their cooperation, he noted.

At the one-day forum held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and China's National Development and Reform Commission, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said the close economic and trade ties between the business communities have helped boost the friendly and all-round cooperative relations between the two countries.

"The Vietnam-China relations have developed very soundly at different levels, including the central, provincial, district and communal levels at border areas. Now, we are broadening and deepening economic cooperation through enterprises, a spearhead force in the economic front," Hung said.

The forum was attended by government officials of Vietnam and China, representatives from some 500 Vietnamese enterprises and around 100 Chinese companies.

Source: Xinhua