Clothing being ironed at the Made Clothing Vietnam Co Ltd in the southern province of Binh Duong. (Photo: VNA) HCM City(VNA) – Vietnam’s hopes for a FTA-driven economic rise within ASEAN must nowrely on the only free trade agreement seen as realistically achievable, theEU-Vietnam FTA, experts said at a conference held on February 16 in HCM City.
Globaluncertainty and challenges have intensified since the beginning of the year,especially after US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw the US from theTrans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.
Le Anh Tuan,deputy CIO and head of research at Dragon Capital, said that Vietnam, with alarge working-age population, the second-fastest growing middle classworldwide, and improved productivity, had many advantages to attract foreigninvestors.
However,the window of opportunity will close within the next seven to 10 years as thecompetitive advantages will diminish, he said.
Tuan andother experts spoke at the “EVFTA: a Game Changer for Vietnam in ASEAN?”conference, organised by the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) in Vietnamin collaboration with the EU-Vietnam Business Network.
FranciscoFontan, EU Ambassador to ASEAN, said the EU has launched a series of FTAnegotiations with selected ASEAN countries in order to fully realise the marketopportunities for EU companies.
“Amongthem, negotiations with Vietnam and Singapore have been successfully concluded.The EU and Vietnam remain two solid and reliable partners, open for business toASEAN and to the world,” he said.
The EUhas become ASEAN’s second largest trade partner after China, while ASEAN is theEU’s third-largest trade partner outside Europe, after the US and China, hesaid.
“In fact, bilateral merchandise trade has almost doubled in the past 10 years,”Fontan said. “More impressive still, the EU is the largest investor in ASEANeconomies.”
MichaelBehrens, Chairman of EuroCham, said the EVFTA will “go live” about a year fromnow.
“The potential of the EVFTA is clear, as its effective application can build onthese good trade numbers between Europe and Vietnam and turn them into along-lasting and ever progressing partnership, and ultimately into one of themost powerful intercontinental trade and investment corridors in the world,” hesaid.
“TheEVFTA offers Vietnam the chance to link 500 million Europeans with more than500 million ASEAN citizens, thus being at the centre of a trade corridor forabout one billion potential customers,” he added.
DonaldKanak, Chairman of the EU-ASEAN Business Council, said optimism about ASEAN’sfuture was as strong as ever.
“Acomprehensive region-to-region FTA between ASEAN and the EU will be asignificant game changer for both regions,” he said.
Regarding Vietnam’s opportunity in the ASEAN automobile industry with EVFTA,Chris Humphrey, executive director of EU-ASEAN Business Council, said “Vietnamis in possession of a low-cost base, and increasing concentration of auto partsmakers. EVFTA provides Vietnam with the potential to become one of thefastest-growing car markets in the ASEAN region over the next 20 years.”
Challenges,however, remain due to high levels of competition from Thailand and Indonesiaas well as infrastructure and traffic congestion issues.
He urged Vietnamto raise technical standards and increase local content for global exportmarkets.
Conference participants included key speakers and experts in EU-Vietnam andEU-ASEAN relations, as well as business leaders and thinkers discussingpossible scenarios for the Vietnamese economy in 2018 when EVFTA is slated tocome into force.-VNA
VNA
