Bengal in sight as part of our move to boost bilateral ties: Vietnam Ambassador

Kolkata: Vietnam is looking at Bengal as a major gateway in its stride for developing trade relations with the Eastern states of the country, Ambassador, Embassy of Vietnam in India, Ton Sinh Thanh said on Wednesday.

"Vietnam has received investment of 320 billion US dollars from across the world for 25,000 projects. But investment from India has been only 1 billion US dollars for 130 projects. This is a small amount and we want things to move. We want to attract more tourists to Vietnam from India as well as Bengal," Thanh said at an interactive session on "Bila-teral Trade between India and Vietnam: Prospects and Way Ahead" at MCCI.

Sadhan Pande , state minister for Consumer Affairs, Self Help Group and Self Employment, who was the special guest at the event, urged the Ambassador to consider making Bengal a hub for the country.

"Bengal is at the crossroad of South East Asia and you can move to any Eastern state from here. So, you may consider making Bengal a hub as part of your efforts to develop relationship between the two countries," Pande said.

He added that Vietnam needs to play a more positive role in attracting tourists from the country.

"People from the country as well as Bengal travel a lot to Bangkok and Bali. Vietnam should also come in the picture of wooing tourists from here," he added.

According to the Ambassador, only 1,10,000 Indians visited Vietnam, while a little over 1 million Indians went to Thailand. Pointing out connectivity as a constraint, he said, "We are working on improving connectivity between the two countries. A direct flight from Delhi to Vietnam is going to commence in September 2018. Bengal is also very much on our radar. The Indian government is promoting a Look East policy and developing closer business ties with South East Asia and Bengal is the gateway to the Eastern states," Thanh said.