Workers process wood products at SAHABAK Joint Stock Company in Bac Kan Province’s Thanh Binh Industrial Zone. (Photo: VNA)HCMCity (VNA) – A conference was held in HCM City on November 30 toreview a project on enhancing the capacity of small and medium-sizedenterprises to meet requirements of the European Union Forest on Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan.
Sponsoredby the EU, the project has been implemented by the Vietnamese SustainableForest Management Institute (SFMI) in collaboration with the NEPCon, aninternational non-profit organisation.
According toAnn Weddle, director of the project, after three years of implementation, theproject has built a set of tools to support Vietnamese enterprises in meetingrequirements on legal wood, enable them to work with the European Unionbusinesses.
It has compiled forestry legal risk profiles for Vietnam and five othercountries that Vietnam imports wood from, she said, adding that the profileshelped Vietnamese companies access legal risks when importing wood from thosecountries, thus helping them export their products to the EU market easily.
Representatives of participating enterprises said via the project, businesseswere equipped with knowledge on legal wood and regulations of the EU andrequirements of the FLEGT action plan.
The set oftools is very useful as it assists enterprises in assessing and managing woodsupplies, thus making them ready to meet the FLEGT requirements.
Earlier, onNovember 18, 2016, after years of negotiation, Vietnam and the EU reached an agreementin principle to work together towards reducing illegal wood exploitation,improving forest administration and promote legally-produced wood tradepromotion via the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on FLEGT.
Nguyen To Uyenfrom the Cooperation Committee of the EU Delegation in Vietnam said though theVPA is just a bilateral agreement, its impacts will be beyond Vietnam’s bordergiven the country’s centre role in the global trade of wood products.
The signing of the VPA will help improve domestic standards and help enterprisesaccess EU markets easier, she noted.
In order toimplement the VPA/FLEGT, Uyen said Vietnam must include the commitments in theVPA in relevant existing laws, emphasised the need to develop a system todefine the legality of wood and wood products in the supply chain.-VNA
Sponsoredby the EU, the project has been implemented by the Vietnamese SustainableForest Management Institute (SFMI) in collaboration with the NEPCon, aninternational non-profit organisation.
According toAnn Weddle, director of the project, after three years of implementation, theproject has built a set of tools to support Vietnamese enterprises in meetingrequirements on legal wood, enable them to work with the European Unionbusinesses.
It has compiled forestry legal risk profiles for Vietnam and five othercountries that Vietnam imports wood from, she said, adding that the profileshelped Vietnamese companies access legal risks when importing wood from thosecountries, thus helping them export their products to the EU market easily.
Representatives of participating enterprises said via the project, businesseswere equipped with knowledge on legal wood and regulations of the EU andrequirements of the FLEGT action plan.
The set oftools is very useful as it assists enterprises in assessing and managing woodsupplies, thus making them ready to meet the FLEGT requirements.
Earlier, onNovember 18, 2016, after years of negotiation, Vietnam and the EU reached an agreementin principle to work together towards reducing illegal wood exploitation,improving forest administration and promote legally-produced wood tradepromotion via the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) on FLEGT.
Nguyen To Uyenfrom the Cooperation Committee of the EU Delegation in Vietnam said though theVPA is just a bilateral agreement, its impacts will be beyond Vietnam’s bordergiven the country’s centre role in the global trade of wood products.
The signing of the VPA will help improve domestic standards and help enterprisesaccess EU markets easier, she noted.
In order toimplement the VPA/FLEGT, Uyen said Vietnam must include the commitments in theVPA in relevant existing laws, emphasised the need to develop a system todefine the legality of wood and wood products in the supply chain.-VNA
VNA
