International economic integration, especially WTO accession, has made positive impacts on Vietnam ’s economic growth during the last three years.

Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), Doctor Vo Tri Thanh, made the remark at a seminar in Hanoi on April 5 to discuss a report on evaluating the impacts made by integration on Vietnam ’s economy after three years of WTO accession.

Since 2007, Vietnam ’s economy had seen various positive results from integration, such as improved business environment and the reduction of trade barriers from trade partners, he said.

Vietnam has integrated deeper into the world’s economy by implementing a series of commitments, facilitating trade activities, especially export.

Vietnam posted an export value of 48.6 billion USD in 2007 a rise of 22 percent over 2006, which increased by 29.1 percent to 62.7 billion USD in 2008, Thanh said.

According to Thanh, export growth has helped improve Vietnamese exports’ competitiveness, making the country one of the world’s leading exporters in some products, such as rice, coffee and rubber.

However, the impacts of the international economic integration have not reached rural workers, and the unemployment rate in the area is still on the rise, according to experts in the area.

They said it is necessary to improve legal framework in accordance with integration commitments and market economy norms.

Management policies relating to financial, land and labour markets should be issued and human resource quality should be increased, experts said./.