Minister of Foreign Trade discusses cooperation with Vietnam Business Council

Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Foreign Trade, met the Vietnam Business Council in the UAE to discuss how the business communities in both nations can take full advantage of the opportunities that will be created once the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), signed in October 2024, enters into force.

During his discussions, Al Zeyoudi emphasised Vietnam’s value to the UAE as a trading partner. In the first half of 2025, bilateral non-oil trade reached US$7.02 billion, a 16.9 percent increase on the same period in 2024 – and a quarter-on-quarter rise of 6.4 percent. This accelerates the growth recorded in 2024, which climbed 4 percent across the year to reach US$12.6 billion, representing a 54.3 percent rise since 2019.

The results maintain Vietnam’s status as the UAE’s largest non-oil trading partner in the ASEAN region.

The UAE, Al Zeyoudi noted, remains committed to further developing bilateral trade with Vietnam and increasing avenues for investment to support industrial development.

“Both the UAE and Vietnam are dedicated to achieving mutual growth by expanding opportunities for our private sectors. Our CEPA has been designed to open up new markets for our exporters and increase access to global supply chains, and it is incumbent on both nations to build the connections to fully leverage its potential. We have strong foundations to build on, with our business communities already benefiting from extensive bilateral exchange, and we are now well-placed to develop a broad range of new opportunities for investors, entrepreneurs and businesses,” he said.

“We are already seeing the benefits of close collaboration,” he added. “From supporting Vietnam’s logistics infrastructure, including Saigon’s Premier Container Terminal in Ho Chi Minh City and new cargo services across the Mekong Delta, we have set a course for further growth and greater prosperity – and look forward to adding to these key investments in the months and years ahead.”

The UAE enjoys robust economic ties to the ASEAN region, having concluded Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements with Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam, which have helped to propel the UAE’s non-oil foreign trade with ASEAN countries to US$37.7 billion in 2024, a growth of 4.2 percent compared to 2023 and 16.8 percent more than in 2022. ASEAN countries accounted for 4.6 percent of the UAE's total non-oil trade with the world in 2024, and 11.3 percent of the UAE's trade with non-Arab Asian countries.