HANOI - Vietnamese businesses should make the best of China's Hong Kong as a gateway for bringing their goods to other markets, reported Vietnam's state-run Vietnam News on Tuesday.

The newspaper quoted the saying by experts at a seminar recently held in capital Hanoi to discuss ways to boost exports to the territory.

According to Le Xuan Duong, director of the Export Assistance Center under the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, Hong Kong primarily imports food and foodstuffs from abroad due to its shortage of cultivated land, which creates favorable conditions for the Vietnamese agricultural sector to promote exports to this lucrative market.

As an important financial and trade center for Asia and the world, possessing the busiest airport in the world for transporting international cargo and the third busiest container port, Hong Kong is considered an ideal destination for major Asia Pacific companies as well as a trade and investment gateway linking China with other countries, Duong said.

According to the agency's director, the double tax avoidance agreement between Vietnam and Hong Kong that became effective on January 2010 has also helped increase Vietnamese exports to Hong Kong.

In 2012, Vietnam ranked 17th out of 30 countries and territories with the strongest trade ties with Hong Kong, raking in $4.7 billion in total export-import turnover, of which Vietnam exported $3.7 billion, up 12 percent, while imported around $1 billion worth of goods, up 10. 7 percent over the previous year.

Key Vietnamese exports include agricultural products, office and telecommunications equipment, computers, electronic and semi-conductor components.