VN-EU Free Trade Agreement
FNF and VCCI providing information about EVFTA to Vietnamese entrepreneurs
On September 24, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in collaboration with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) organized the seminar of "EVFTA - What businesses need to know" to provide businesses and related units with the core content, the basics of EVFTA. It also updated the implementation of the agreement from both businesses and the Vietnamese government after 2 months of entry into force.
The EU is a major importer, with the second-largest purchasing power in the world and a key market for Vietnamese exports for many years. In the Asia region, Vietnam is one of the few countries that have a trade agreement with the EU. Therefore, EVFTA opens up special import, export opportunities and advantages for Vietnamese goods. At the same time, this agreement is also a springboard for Vietnam to attract investment from different FDI partners in the world.
The workshop was attended by Prof. Dr. Andreas Stoffers – Country Director of FNF Vietnam, Dr. Pham Hung Tien - Deputy Director of FNF Vietnam, Dr. Vu Tien Loc - President of VCCI and Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang - Director of the Center for WTO and Integration of VCCI.
At the conference, Prof. Dr. Stoffers had stated: "The key question that concerns all of us is how the good conditions provided by EVFTA can now be followed by action." According to the FNF's Country Director, excellent preparation has been done at a high macro level from all sides in the past months. But now it is time to put the many ideas and approaches into practice. There is a promising three-layer approach to prepare Vietnam’s business community optimally for the implementation of EVFTA:
1) On the macro level, we have to continue our advocacy, involving all stake holders. Besides VCCI it is mainly MOFA, EuroCham and the national European Chambers of Commerce.
2) Workshops has to be organised for companies at provincial level or grouped together in individual company sectors. In this point, VCCI plays the role as a key player.
3) EVFTA-lighthouses of successful joint enterprise projects between EU companies and Vietnamese companies.
For this purpose, FNF Vietnam is already in cooperation very closely with VCCI Can Tho in a collaboration project. VCCI Can Tho is currently selecting 3-6 Vietnamese SMEs which will receive very individual training and preparation from VCCI and from the EU side. The companies will then be matched with companies carefully selected and also prepared at EU level, e.g. from Germany, Poland and Italy. These best practice co-operations then serve as a model for others and encourage all sides to continue. The aim is to ultimately establish two or three successful medium-sized EU-Vietnamese cooperations, which will then be marketed as lighthouses with high publicity to prove that EVFTA works.
President of VCCI - Dr. Vu Tien Loc emphasized "Enterprises play the most important role contributing to the success of EVFTA. Therefore, with the great benefits that EVFTA brings, relevant state agencies and businesses should join hands to cultivate and reap the sweetness of the EVFTA 'tree of life'”
Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang - Director of the Center for WTO and Integration - VCCI also introduced the “Enterprise Guide to EVFTA” - a document that summarizes the core contents of EVFTA, explains commitments in a concise, easy-to-understand way with notes of businesses on the issues that need the most attention.
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