Vietnam, Indonesia set trade target of $10 billion during Party chief's visit

Vietnam's Communist Party leader has brokered a deal to boost bilateral trade with Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

Party Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong met with top Indonesian legislators on Tuesday and agreed to raise the current $5.6 billion in bilateral trade to $8 billion next year and $10 billion in the near future.

Vietnam and Indonesia established diplomatic ties in 1955, and Vietnam is currently the only Southeast Asian country to have a strategic partnership with Indonesia, Vietnam News Agency reported.

As of April, Indonesia ranked 30th among the 105 nations and territories investing in Vietnam, with projects involving oil, gas, coal, banking and timber.

Indonesia is a member of the G20 group of the world’s leading emerging economies, and the deepening relationship will play an important role in Vietnam’s economic development and regional stability, Trong said.

His visit is the first made by a Vietnamese Party chief to Indonesia since late President Ho Chi Minh’s visit in 1959, and the first visit made by a top Vietnamese leader since the two nations established a strategic partnership in June 2013.

He will leave on Thursday to visit Myanmar at the invitation of President Htin Kyaw.