Pretoria (VNA)✅ – Aworking delegation led by Vietnamese Ambassador to South Africa Hoang Van Loipaid a working trip to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province from March 16-20, as partof Vietnam’s economic diplomacy programme for this year.

During the trip,the delegation held working sessions with the Trade andInvestment KwaZulu-Natal (TIKZN),the management board of theRichards Bay Coal Terminal and the railway transport conglomerate Transnet. Loi informed TIKZN CEO Neville Matjie about plans for the upcoming visit by Vietnamese Minister of Industryand Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, including a B2B matching event in the province.Both sides agreed to successfully hold activities during the visit. Matjie expressed hisinterest in learning from Vietnam’s experience in several sectors. He said KwaZulu-Natalprovince wants to draw more tourists from Vietnam and acquire its experience indeveloping tourism models based on business households and small enterpriseswhich have been successful in tourism hubs like Hanoi, Hoi An and Ha LongBay. In apparel, hewished to study Vietnam’s ways in attracting foreign direct investment and outsourcing contracts with some of the world's largestfashion labels. Thehost also sought Vietnam’s experience in rapidly increasing the proportion ofrenewable energy in the national energy structure within a short period oftime, as well as methods for attracting investment and managing renewableenergy projects. He called on Vietnam to invest in wind and solar power in theprovince. Locatedin the southeast of the country, KwaZulu-Natal province is known for its stunningbeaches, safari parks, lush green hills, and vast sugarcane and bananaplantations, and an extensive network of seaports, making it an idealdestination for Vietnamese investors and businesses to access the South Africanmarket, he said. Loisaid in the near future, the Vietnamese Embassy will work with the VietnamTrade Office in South Africa to arrange trips to the country by delegations oftrade, tourism and investment promotion officials. VisitingRichards Bay Terminal – the biggest coal export terminal in South Africa, theVietnamese delegation talked with its management board and representatives ofTransnet to learn about logistics infrastructure and supply chain from mines toterminal. Loisaid mining will be a cooperation field that the two countries’ industry andtrade ministries aim to step up in the coming time, including importing coalfrom South Africa to diversify material sources for thermal power plants andindustrial production in Vietnam. Talkingwith the Vietnam News Agency following the working session, CEO of the Richards BayCoal Terminal Alan Waller described Vietnam as a developing market of SouthAfrica. Bothcountries hold the potential in coal import-export, he said, adding that SouthAfrica’s coal quality is good and the terminal could provide effective servicesthat Vietnam need./.