Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended a Vietnam - China business seminar in Chongqing city of China on November 8, calling on enterprises of both countries to promote investment and business cooperation.

The event was held as part of the Vietnamese leader’s trip to attend the 8th Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Summit and bilateral activities in China.

PM Chinh stressed that Vietnam is pushing forward three strategic breakthroughs of building a transparent institutional framework, developing strategic infrastructure, and training high-quality human resources; and making efforts to improve the business and investment environment by creating an open, transparent, equal, and healthy business climate, simplifying administrative procedures, reducing logistics costs, input costs, and compliance costs, and enhancing the competitiveness of products.

Regarding the firms’ recommendations, the PM said the smart customs system has been carried out to simplify customs procedures while competent sides of the two countries have built policies to improve logistics infrastructure, provide financial support, foster technical cooperation, and develop emerging industries such as the digital economy, green economy, circular economy, as well as traceability for products, packaging, and product design.

At the event, seven Memoranda of Understanding were signed between Vietnamese and Chinese businesses in various fields, including railway, battery storage production, and energy supporting industry.

Total trade turnover between the two countries reached $190.9 billion in the first nine months of the year, surging 14.5% year-on-year.

As of October, China had nearly 5,000 valid investment projects in Vietnam, with a total registered capital of close to $30 billion.