Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) said yesterday that Taiwan supports Vietnam's bid to join the WTO, but it also hopes Hanoi will further open up its markets.
Chen made the remarks when he met with a Vietnamese delegation visiting the country for a second round of bilateral talks on the southeast Asian nation's bid to enter the world trade regulatory body.
Chen said that Ha Hyu Tuan, an official in charge of international cooperation under Vietnam's Ministry of Finance and head of the delegation, paid only a courtesy call and that the two sides didn't exchange views on substantive issues.
Taiwan and Vietnam have close trade exchanges, Chen said, noting that Taiwanese businesspeople have directly or indirectly invested US$8 billion in Vietnam over the years, becoming the biggest foreign investor in that country and contributing a great deal to its economic development.
For this reason, "Taiwan will naturally support Vietnam's bid to join the WTO," Chen said.
But Chen also expressed the hope that Vietnam will further open up its markets and improve its investment environment, especially in the service sector.
Taiwan hopes that Vietnam can open its financial service market in the talks on the country's terms for entering the WTO, so as to facilitate Taiwanese businesspeople operating in Vietnam to obtain needed capital, he added.
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