At the webinar (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – A webinar on chancesbrought by the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) for Vietnamese and Frenchbusinesses took place on July 8.
It was jointly held by the Ministry ofIndustry and Trade and France’s Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.
As the EVFTA is due to take effect onAugust 1, the event aimed to provide French businesses with information onVietnam’s trade and investment policies following the deal, as well as on thepotential market with a population of nearly 100 million and the gateway toASEAN.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Industryand Trade Tran Tuan Anh underlined that the Vietnam-France trade and investmentties have enjoyed favourable conditions after 50 years of the diplomaticrelations and seven years of the strategic partnership, with economic ties as apillar.
France is among leading partners of Vietnamas the fourth largest export market of the Southeast Asian country. The Vietnam-Francetrade and investment ties will turn over a new promising page to overcomechallenges after the EVFTA take effects, he added.
He hoped to further cooperate with Frenchpartners in the fields of clean and renewable energy, high technology, agriculture,processing and manufacturing, among others.
The minister pledged that Vietnam willcreate optimal conditions in terms of investment climate and infrastructure forFrench companies to capitalise on benefits brought by the EVFTA.
Vietnamese firms are urgedto improve business models and management to meet requirements and trends ofthe European market.
Statistics showed that two-way tradetripled to 5.3 billion USD in 2019 from roughly 1.6 billion USD 10 yearsago, making France the third largest trade partner of Vietnam in Europe, onlyafter Germany and the Netherlands.
As of May 2020, France had invested in 588projects in Vietnam with a combined capital of 3.56 billion USD, ranking secondamong the European investors in Vietnam.
In the first five months of this year,export-import value of the two nations slipped 18.66 percent year-on-year to 1.77billion USD due to the impact of COVID-19. Vietnam shipped products worth 1.2billion USD to France in the period./.
