Illustrative image (Source: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) – The southern business community suggested more cuts in export procedures as among solutions to spurring Vietnam’s exports in the remaining months of 2016 at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on July 19.
Sharing the businesses’ views, Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said the administrative reform needs to be hastened since it is essential to production and export activities.
The official cited regulations on the import of materials and additives serving seafood production and processing that cost firms both time and money to clarify his opinions.
Huynh Van Hanh, Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Handicraft and Wood Industry Association, also listed a string of difficulties facing the wood sector such as high export duty and limited access to bank loans.
Nguyen Minh Toai, Director of the Can Tho City Department of Industry and Trade, proposed the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) coordinate with the State Bank of Vietnam to set forth mechanisms and policies on interest rates to support enterprises.
Businesses should be updated with information about integration as well as free trade agreements to which Vietnam is a signatory, he said.
MoIT Minister Tran Tuan Anh said that the ministry’s Export-Import Department will hold working sessions with associations to implement export promotion programmes, remove difficulties facing businesses and help them raise their competitiveness.
The country’s export turnover in the first half of this year hit 82.13 billion USD, representing a year-on-year rise of 5.7 percent.
However, Vietnam’s export to several markets such as Eurozone, Japan, the US, China, India and a handful of newly-emerging economies is experiencing a downward trend during the reviewed period.
According to the ministry, the signing of new-generation free trade agreements this year, especially the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and a free trade agreement between Vietnam and the EU, is expected to exert positive impacts on Vietnam’s exports while opening up opportunities for the country for expand its market in the time ahead.-VNA
