The 42nd meeting of the Việt Nam-Laos Inter-Governmental Committee was a success, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith said.

The size of Vietnamese e-commerce market is likely to hit 13 billion USD this year thanks to a large percentage of young residents and internet subscribers, according to insiders.

The EAEU member states approved a document defining the strategic goals for developing the Eurasian integration until 2025, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated last week while listing its achievements for 2019. They also endorsed a concept for forming an EAEU financial common market with a view to launching it in 2025, according to the Ministry.

The US will impose new restrictions on the export of certain AI programs overseas, including to rival China.

With the phase-one trade deal between the U.S. and China about to be signed, a key threat hanging over the global economy has diminished. After 18 months of wrangling about Chinese purchases of U.S. goods and opening of its markets, investors are hopeful that the current pause in the trade war will be maintained.

The country’s trade surplus reached a record high of US$9.9 billion in 2019, the highest level seen in the past four years.

Although challenges lie ahead, there remains room for agro-forestry-fishery exports to increase in 2020, according to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong.

The fisheries sector in 2020 will focus on granting certification to brackish shrimp farms (tiger shrimp and white-leg shrimp), tra fish farms and aquaculture in cages, Director of the Directorate of Fisheries Tran Dinh Luan said.

At a conference in Hanoi on 23 December organised by Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment, Mr Le Tien Truong, vice chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, and general director of Vinatex, said the industry is keen to participate in the global supply chain and maintain growth momentum, while developing sustainably.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) may have reduced average tariffs by nearly half and streamlined world trade in its 25-year history, but the multilateral trading body is faced with the challenge of rising protectionism across the globe, the WTO chief has said.