Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh hosts a reception for a delegation of the Vietnam-ASEAN Association for Economic Cooperation Development in Hanoi on October 5. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister and ForeignMinister Pham Binh Minh hosted a reception for a delegation of the Vietnam-ASEANAssociation for Economic Cooperation Development in Hanoi on October 5.
Also present at the meeting were representatives from 85domestic enterprises and investors from ASEAN member states, Japan, theRepublic of Korea, and India who were seeking the government’s continuedreduction of corporate income and value added taxes, and land rents in 2020and 2021.
They wanted the Vietnamese Government to support them inseizing opportunities from the global manufacturing shift and coming up withproper personnel plans and business strategies.
They also expected the Government to tighten intellectualproperty management and accelerate disbursement of business support packages asnew-generation free trade agreements, notably the Comprehensive and ProgressiveAgreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and EU-Vietnam Free TradeAgreement (EVFTA), have entered into force in Vietnam.
Speaking at the event, Minh highlightedefforts by the Government in fighting the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic andhelping enterprises weather the crisis.
He outlined the non-agricultural land use tax reduction andexemption and corporate income tax waiver in 2020 and the deferral of taxes andland use fees as examples of supports provided by the Government to aid thoseaffected by COVID-19.
The Government has also worked hard to accelerate publicadministrative reforms and create a better business climate, reflected by thecut of over 3,800 business conditions and more than 6,700 goods required specialisedinspections, he said.
He expected the association and its business members to pay more attention to ASEANmarkets.
According to him, total trade between Vietnam and ASEANreached 57 billion USD last year, 10 times the figure 25 years ago and 11 percent of the country’s total foreign trade. By the end ofJuly 2020, FDI flows from investors from ASEAN countries into Vietnam neared nearly82 billion USD, representing 21.6 percent of the total FDI injection.
He also asked enterprises to proactively make the most ofopportunities and overcome challenges from the FTAs./.
VNA
