Economy
Việt Nam's administrative restructuring will not impact foreign investors, says Foreign Ministry
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| Việt Nam’s tra catfish to ASEAN market. Bilateral trade between Việt Nam and ASEAN rose 13 times from $3.3 billion in 1995 to $42.1 billion in 2015. -- Photo congluan.vn |
Viet Nam News
HÀ NỘI – Việt Nam can enjoy increasing commercial transactions and exchange in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), Tạ Hoàng Linh, the deputy director of Việt Nam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), told the conference on improving Việt Nam’s export competitiveness capacity to ASEAN countries held in Hà Nội yesterday.
"The AEC has paid attention to narrowing the development gap among ASEAN countries. It will also help member countries promote their economic growth, creating jobs and attracting foreign direct investment as well as improving production and competitiveness capacity," said Linh.
Linh said last year the AEC was established following 10 years of preparation with a population scale of more than 600 million. The 10-country community has total annual GDP of some US$2 trillion. AEC was expected to create an economic area with high competitiveness and integration into the world economy.
Statistics from the ministry showed that ASEAN had been one Việt Nam’s most important trade partners following China.
Bilateral trade between Việt Nam and ASEAN rose 13 times from $3.3 billion in 1995 to $42.1 billion in 2015. The average growth rate of Việt Nam’s exports to ASEAN was 17.1 per cent per year. The country’s export turnover to ASEAN increased by 18 times from $1 billion in 1995 to $18.3 billion in 2015.
Đỗ Quốc Hưng, deputy director of MoIT’s Asia-Pacific Department, said Vietnamese exporters would enjoy increasing trade exchange volume, changing the export structure and improving competitiveness, thus expanding market share.
However, Hưng said Việt Nam’s goods would face fierce competition from ASEAN countries as it would have to open its market for imported products. In addition, Vietnamese exports to the region would see pressures of technical barriers.
He said local firms should renew their technologies, improving products’ quality and localisation rate to take advantage of opportunities to export to the ASEAN market.
The issue of building brand name based on quality and added value should also be given priority.
In addition, Vietnamese firms should build their own distribution channels in the export markets while enhancing studies and trade promotion activities to fully exploit the ASEAN market potential. -- VNS
