The second session of the Vietnam-UK Working Group on Trade and Investment Dialogue took place in London from January 14-15, focusing on orientations for cooperation after the UK’s exit from the European Union (Brexit).

Shrimp processing for export - Illustrative image

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh and Vivien Life, Director for Asia and Australia Negotiations at the UK Department for International Trade, co-chaired the event.

The two sides got updated on the UK’s negotiations on Brexit and compared notes on orientations to maintain and promote trade and investment ties in the coming time.

Last year, the two countries celebrated the 45th anniversary of their diplomatic relations. Two way trade reached a record high in 2017 at 6.2 billion USD, and reached 3.12 billion USD in the first half of the year, or a year-on-year rise of 14.2 percent. As of August 20 last year, the UK had 341 valid investment projects totaling 3.57 billion USD in Vietnam.

At present, many big names in the UK are running successful business in the Southeast Asia country such as Jardine Matheson, Dragon Capital, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC Vietnam, Prudential, and Rolls-Royce.-VNA