India, Vietnam plot 50% trade growth in 2009

India, Vietnam plot 50% trade growth in 2009 Trade officials in India and Vietnam said last week they hope to see a 50 percent jump in bilateral trade between the nations in 2009.
   The countries are targeting $3 billion in two-way trade, Lal T. Muana, India’s ambassador to Vietnam said last week, according to a report in Than Nien News. Last year, the countries saw $2 billion in bilateral trade, up from $70 million in 1995.
   Indian exporters saw their volumes to Vietnam rise 45 percent in 2008, but Vietnamese exporters aren’t seeing quite the same success in India, Muana said. India has a sizable trade surplus with Vietnam, exporting feed, pharmaceuticals and textiles and importing primarily minerals, precious stones and spices.
   One constraint on trade is poor shipping links between the two countries, with no direct services offered between two of Asia’s biggest rising powers.
   The newspaper quoted Pham The Hung, director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ho Chi Minh City, as saying that Vietnamese exporters needed to market their goods in India as well as India’s exporters do in Vietnam, a measure that would narrow the trade deficit and boost overall trade figures.