HANOI - Vietnam attracts great attention from Chinese businesses, and in return, China sees Vietnam as potential market in the future, said Dao Ngoc Chuong, Deputy Head of the Asia-Pacific Market Division, under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT).

Vietnam News Agency on Thursday quoted Chuong and said that China is Vietnam's biggest neighboring market, with a similar structure of import-export goods. The two-way trade is implemented in diverse forms, including official routes, border trade, temporary import for export, transits, exchange of goods between people in the border areas.

Currently China is Vietnam's biggest importer, and the third biggest exporter, after the United States and Japan.

According to statistics from China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat, in the first quarter of 2011, China-Vietnam two-way trade has risen sharply, with total value of imports and exports up 42.3 percent to $7.9 billion.

Chuong said that the two countries' legal framework for investment has been improved in line with the international laws, which helped boost the bilateral trade. China supplied fuel and raw materials of strategic significance to Vietnam's economy. In return, it needs a great amount of Vietnamese products, such as rubber, coffee, fruit, high-quality wooden ware, sea food and consumer goods, Chuong added.