)
Targeting an annual bilateral commerce of $15 billion by 2020, India on Tuesday offered a $300 million credit line to Vietnam for trade diversification. India has already extended a $100 million Line of Credit (LoC) last month to the South East Asian nation for defence procurement to help it modernise its armed forces.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung noted that enhancing economic cooperation should be pursued as a strategic objective.
Expressing satisfaction on the steady progress made in enhancing trade and investment between the countries, both the leaders agreed to take measures to significantly expand and diversify bilateral commerce for mutually beneficial results and "agreed to enhance the trade targets to $15 billion by 2020," a joint statement issued after the meeting said.
In 2013-14, the two-way commerce between India and Vietnam stood at $8 billion.
Business leaders of both the countries identified several sectors as priority areas for cooperation. The sectors include hydrocarbons, power generation, infrastructure, tourism, textiles, pharmaceuticals, electronics, agriculture, chemicals and machine tools.
The Vienamese Prime Minister welcomed Indian companies to invest in Vietnam and affirmed his country's commitment to create favourable conditions for Indian investments.
"Prime Minister Modi invited the Vietnamese companies to join the Make in India campaign. The two leaders agreed to utilise the Customs Cooperation Agreement and Maritime Shipping Agreement between the two countries for facilitating more intensive economic engagement," the statement said.
