A conference was held in Ho Chi Minh City on December 20 to provide Vietnamese enterprises with information on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and Vietnam ’s participation in the pact.

In his opening speech, Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hoang Van Dung said the TPP will be a new generation of Free Trade Agreement which covers many fields in wider spheres with a trade liberalisation level larger than those of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and previous FTAs.

Therefore, it is forecast to have both direct and indirect impacts on production and business, he added.

Domestic and foreign economic experts predicted that Vietnam will have the opportunity to enhance its exports by accessing markets of TPP member nations, which is expected to encompass about 40 percent of GDP and one-third of world trade.

Joining the TPP will help Vietnam by cutting tariffs and attracting more investment for key sectors of the country such as textiles, footwear and aquaculture.

The pact will also create favourable conditions for Vietnam to access advanced technologies and equipment, thus helping improve and expand production capacity and raising the competitiveness of enterprises.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh, head of the Vietnamese delegation to the negotiations, stressed once participating in the TPP, Vietnam will be able to improve its import-export market structure, seek new markets for Vietnamese goods and join regional and international production chains.

He added the agreement will also facilitate the restructuring of the country’s economy and the renovation of its growth model.

Conference participants suggested Vietnamese businesses provide information for the country’s delegation to the negotiations, while paying their attention to learning about the rights and obligations of enterprises once the pact is signed.

The latest TPP session came after the World Trade Organisation reached an agreement on December 7 on some of the issues under the long-stalled Doha Round of trade liberalisation talks in Indonesia.

TPP member countries include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.-VNA