At the event (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Vietnam is facing numerous difficulties andchallenges in promoting trade facilitation, said experts at a forum in Ho ChiMinh City on November 8.
Trade facilitation is not only a commitment of Vietnam when joining free tradeagreements (FTAs) but also a measure to raise businesses’ competitiveness andefficiency of their import-export activities, they said.
FTAs may have significantly reduced import tariffs in many markets forVietnamese goods, but administrative reform, reduction of trading costs andimproving the business environment are key to improving national competitiveness,they added.
Nguyen Anh Duong, head of the Central Institute for Economic Management’smacroeconomics policy department, said Vietnam’s trade facilitation rankingsare middling in the world and in ASEAN, and far behind neighbouring nations likeThailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
In the World Bank’s trading across borders rankings, Vietnam is 94th outof 190 countries, in the World Economic Forum’s enabling trade index, it is73rd out of 136 nations and in the World Bank’s logistics performanceindex, it ranks 64th out of 160.
“The Government aims to transform progressively specialised inspection fromlargely ex-ante inspection to largely ex-post inspection in line with riskmanagement principles and regulatory compliance of individuals and entities,”he said.
It is hoped basically to eliminate the incidence of one goods being subject tomanagement and specialised inspection by more than one agency, reduce thenumber of goods subject to specialised inspections by at least 50 percent andreduce the import batches subject to specialised inspections for customclearance from the current 25 – 27 percent to below 10 percent.
It plans to fully electronise administrative procedures via the National SingleWindow and ASEAN Single Window.
According to Ngo Chung Khanh, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry andTrade’s multilateral trade policy department, said FTAs have enhanced thecompetitiveness of enterprises through market access and increased exports.
He cited the example of the textile industry where non-WTO import duties were150 percent, but when a nation joined the WTO, it went down to around 25 percent.Under FTAs, the figure fell to 0 -5 percent, he said.
Export turnover has sharply increased from 5.4 billion USD in 2006 to 213.8billion USD this year.
“FTAs have promoted administrative reform by the Government, improvedinfrastructure, ensured equality in accessing resources, removed barriers toaccessing markets, and simplified conditions for business,” he said.
They also provide assured market access since the WTO is facing manychallenges. Vietnam’s FTAs are in all five continents and that would help limitrisks.
FTAs have reminded enterprises about the potential of the domestic market ofover 90 million people and created opportunities for Vietnamese firms toparticipate in global supply chains, he said, citing that right now there are200 domestic companies supplying accessories to Samsung.
Such deals have brought opportunities to Vietnamese enterprises in the contextof increasing international protectionism, but Vietnam must overcome challengesby speeding up administrative reform and improving its business and investmentenvironment, said Khanh.
At the forum, the Vietnaminformation trade portal at http://vietnamtradeportal.gov.vn was launched,covering information and regulations related to export/import/transit.
The event was co-organised by the HCM City Institute for Development Studiesand the HCM City International Integration Support Centre in collaboration withthe Central Institute for Economic Management, who plan to make it an annualevent.
Itattracted 300 attendees, including officials from HCM City, related ministriesand departments, international organisations, business groups, universities,and research institutes from HCM City and neighbouring provinces.-VNA
Trade facilitation is not only a commitment of Vietnam when joining free tradeagreements (FTAs) but also a measure to raise businesses’ competitiveness andefficiency of their import-export activities, they said.
FTAs may have significantly reduced import tariffs in many markets forVietnamese goods, but administrative reform, reduction of trading costs andimproving the business environment are key to improving national competitiveness,they added.
Nguyen Anh Duong, head of the Central Institute for Economic Management’smacroeconomics policy department, said Vietnam’s trade facilitation rankingsare middling in the world and in ASEAN, and far behind neighbouring nations likeThailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
In the World Bank’s trading across borders rankings, Vietnam is 94th outof 190 countries, in the World Economic Forum’s enabling trade index, it is73rd out of 136 nations and in the World Bank’s logistics performanceindex, it ranks 64th out of 160.
“The Government aims to transform progressively specialised inspection fromlargely ex-ante inspection to largely ex-post inspection in line with riskmanagement principles and regulatory compliance of individuals and entities,”he said.
It is hoped basically to eliminate the incidence of one goods being subject tomanagement and specialised inspection by more than one agency, reduce thenumber of goods subject to specialised inspections by at least 50 percent andreduce the import batches subject to specialised inspections for customclearance from the current 25 – 27 percent to below 10 percent.
It plans to fully electronise administrative procedures via the National SingleWindow and ASEAN Single Window.
According to Ngo Chung Khanh, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry andTrade’s multilateral trade policy department, said FTAs have enhanced thecompetitiveness of enterprises through market access and increased exports.
He cited the example of the textile industry where non-WTO import duties were150 percent, but when a nation joined the WTO, it went down to around 25 percent.Under FTAs, the figure fell to 0 -5 percent, he said.
Export turnover has sharply increased from 5.4 billion USD in 2006 to 213.8billion USD this year.
“FTAs have promoted administrative reform by the Government, improvedinfrastructure, ensured equality in accessing resources, removed barriers toaccessing markets, and simplified conditions for business,” he said.
They also provide assured market access since the WTO is facing manychallenges. Vietnam’s FTAs are in all five continents and that would help limitrisks.
FTAs have reminded enterprises about the potential of the domestic market ofover 90 million people and created opportunities for Vietnamese firms toparticipate in global supply chains, he said, citing that right now there are200 domestic companies supplying accessories to Samsung.
Such deals have brought opportunities to Vietnamese enterprises in the contextof increasing international protectionism, but Vietnam must overcome challengesby speeding up administrative reform and improving its business and investmentenvironment, said Khanh.
At the forum, the Vietnaminformation trade portal at http://vietnamtradeportal.gov.vn was launched,covering information and regulations related to export/import/transit.
The event was co-organised by the HCM City Institute for Development Studiesand the HCM City International Integration Support Centre in collaboration withthe Central Institute for Economic Management, who plan to make it an annualevent.
Itattracted 300 attendees, including officials from HCM City, related ministriesand departments, international organisations, business groups, universities,and research institutes from HCM City and neighbouring provinces.-VNA
VNA
