Developing human resources experts and increasing the effectiveness of FTA implementation is a must for Vietnam in the coming years. (Photo: VNA) Many participants said Vietnam is in dire need of qualified personnel toimplement new generation FTAs.
According to them, FTAs have contributed to promoting Vietnam's institutionaland policy reform, creating motivation for innovation and improving thecompetitiveness of Vietnamese goods and businesses. However, human resources,especially FTA implementation experts, are still very limited and do not meetthe requirements.
Le Thi Hang, Deputy General Director of the Detech Coffee Joint Stock Company,said that with FTAs, her company has faced difficulties in finding experts totrain the staff of the import-export department.
Currently, our company is looking forexperienced experts in FTAs to advise the staff on risk management measures,especially FTAs relating to regulations on labour, environment and intellectualproperty, she said.
Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong, deputy head of the WTO and FTA Department, MultilateralTrade Policy Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), said thatVietnam has been implementing 15 FTAs. Among them are three new-generationFTAs, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP), the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Vietnam- United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA).
These FTAs include not only traditional fields but also non-traditional fieldssuch as labour, environment and intellectual property. Therefore, commitmentcontent is relatively complex and has many high standards, requiring the humanresources team to have a deep understanding of commitment content to helpmanagement agencies and businesses at the local level understand FTAcommitments properly and fully implement the commitments.
Phuong stressed that currently, based on the Prime Minister's direction, theMoIT is assigned to proactively work with relevant ministries and branches todevelop training programmes as well as guide State management agencies andbusinesses to better take advantage of FTAs.
In the coming time, the MoIT will firmly implement work towards building betterhuman resources for Vietnam in the immediate and long term to take advantage ofFTAs, she added.
Statistics showed that the Government, ministries, branches, localities,associations and businesses have made great efforts to work together to improvethe effectiveness of implementing these FTAs. However, the utilisation rate ofthese FTAs is still relatively limited.
For FTAs with good results such as EVFTA, the utilisation rate is only about26% and FTAs like CPTPP are only achieved at 5%. These are modest numberscompared to the space and opportunities these FTAs offer, according to Phuong.
In the immediate future, the MoIT is currently coordinating with its CentralSchool of Industry and Trade Training to develop a framework of trainingdocuments for FTA experts in efforts to build training materials for exportersand importers supporting sustainable development.
In 2023, based on a survey of the needs of provinces and cities, the MoIT willalso initially pilot training the first expert classes to be able to providehuman resources immediately for provinces, cities and consultants to supportbusinesses.
In the long term, the MoIT will conduct a survey of businesses with import andexport activities in markets, especially FTA markets. The ministry will alsocarry out a pilot project with a number of universities that have majors ineconomics and especially international trade to jointly consider and review thetraining content in the schools.
At the recent meeting of the Steering Committee for International EconomicIntegration, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha also requested to strengthenconsultations for the business community and industry associations during theprocess of implementing commitments to international economic integration and FTAsimplementation./.
VNA
