Pretoria (VNA) - Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Hoang Van Loi has led adelegation of Vietnamese representative agencies in South Africa to attend aseminar on ASEAN investment held by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) of South Africa and the Northern Cape provincial government in Kimberley city.

This an initiative of the ASEAN Committee in Pretoria and isthe first seminar on ASEAN investment organised in a South African locality. It also opened a series of events to explore opportunities for investment and trade cooperationbetween ASEAN member countries and South Africa in general and the NorthernCape province in particular.

Inhis speech, Ambassador Loi briefed participants on Vietnam’s socio-economicdevelopment, major development orientations, as well as potential andopportunities to strengthen economic, trade, investment and tourism relationsbetween Vietnam and South Africa.

He stressed Vietnam's huge demand for importing raw materials and materials for production, especiallymining products such as coal and iron ores.

The development of clean energy sources is a potential areabetween Vietnam and Northern Cape, the Vietnamese diplomat added.

Bilateral trade activities between Vietnam and South Africa willbe organised in the coming time, he said, noting that the embassy plans to arrangea number of business delegations from Vietnam to South Africa to seekcooperation opportunities in trade and investment.

Loi said the embassy and the Vietnam trade office in SouthAfrica will make every effort to connect business communities of the twocountries, and is ready to provide information and maximum support for SouthAfrican businesses in general and those in Northern Cape in particular in tradecooperation with Vietnam, towards lifting the two-way trade to 2 billion USDbefore 2025.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Alvin Botes emphasised this conference is a practicaldemonstration on how South Africa perfects its foreign policy, especially inSouth-South cooperation.

According to Botes, South Africa's largest trading partners inASEAN are Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore. South Africa mainlyexports chemicals, ores, iron and steel to; and importstextiles, footwear, electronics, petrochemical products, auto parts, palm oiland some agricultural products from Southeast Asian countries.

He said the signing of South Africa's accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation inSoutheast Asia (TAC) has paved the way for the promotion of closer economic relationand friendship between South Africa and ASEAN./.