Vietnam plans to join ACP

Vietnam plans to join ACP

HANOI (AFP): Vietnam is planning to become a member of the Association of Coffee Producers in an effort to help stabilize prices, a visiting Indonesian minister said yesterday.

Trade Minister Satrio B. Joedono said Vietnamese Agriculture Minister Nguyen Cong Tan had agreed to join the association but the proposal had to be approved by the government and the coffee group.

Vietnam is Asia's second largest coffee producer after Indonesia and is expected to export 170,000 tones of robusta this year.

Joedono said that encouraging Vietnam to join the group was aimed at helping maintain high prices for the commodity, which have soared in the past year.

The Indonesian minister raised the subject again in talks yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister Pham Van Khai, who wields considerable power over Vietnam's economic policy.

Joedono is in Hanoi for a meeting of a joint Indonesian- Vietnamese economic commission aimed at boosting trade and investment between the countries.

Indonesia led the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in establishing trade links with Vietnam, but in recent years has fallen behind its richer neighbors in investment here.

Trade last year between the two reached US$250 million, with Indonesia selling $165 million of fertilizer and consumer goods to Vietnam, which exported $85 million of agricultural products.

Indonesian investment stands at $161 million of licensed projects in coal, tourism, oil and polyester production.

The chambers of commerce and industry from the two countries signed a cooperation agreement yesterday aimed at boosting economic links.