Domestic businesses have been told to promptly recognise the expectedbenefits brought by the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 andbeyond so that they can connect with other countries from the bloc andthe wider region.
Participants made the suggestion at a forumin Hanoi on April 17, discussing ways to step up exports andintegration in the AEC.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade(MIT) Do Thang Hai said the trade turnover between Vietnam and ASEAN hasquadrupled over the past decade, climbing to nearly 40 billion USD in2013 from 9 billion USD in 2003.
Last year, Vietnam raked in18.47 billion USD from its exports to the bloc, the country’s thirdlargest importer only after the US and the EU, an increase of 4.4percent from the previous year, added Hai.
The export turnoverwas estimated at 4.7 billion USD in the first quarter of this year, ayear-on-year increase of 6.4 percent. However, the figure has tended toremain steady, and even slowed down on occasion, as domestic enterpriseshave not yet taken full advantage of the close geographical distanceand incentives offered by the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA).
Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the MIT Import-ExportDepartment, said local firms need to raise the competitiveness of theirexports through quality improvement, especially by following regulationsrelated to origin certification (OC) of products, if they want to fullyutilise the opportunities the AEC will provide.
He proposedthat domestic businesses should set up their development strategies toenlarge the production scale to meet larger orders in the near future.
They also need to specify the contents of the strategies andmeasures to further boost their exports to the ASEAN market,participants suggested.-VNA