The Commercial Counsellor at Vietnam’s Embassy in Mexico, Hoang Tuan Viet, has underlined the opportunities and challenges that Vietnam will face when it enters the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement.

Addressing a seminar on the TPP negotiations and the prospects awaiting member countries in Mexico City on October 31, Viet said that the TPP will offer opportunities for Vietnam to access the greater international market and increase its exports while attracting more foreign investment, which will help it raise its position in the regional and international arena.

However, numerous challenges await the country in the future, including pressure to open up its market as well as make changes to its legal system. Domestic businesses will also face even stiffer competition while the country’s human resources remain inadequate, he said.

In early 2009, Vietnam was invited to join the TPP negotiations as an associate member over three sessions and the country officially joined the mechanism in October 2010 along with Malaysia .

To date, the TPP member countries include Brunei , Chile , the US , Malaysia , New Zealand , Australia , Peru , Vietnam and Singapore .

The seminar was jointly organised by the Mexican Centre for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) and Ministry of Economics to learn from other countries’ experiences, as Mexico and Canada will both take part in their first TPP negotiations in December 2012./.VNA