EVFTA - A push for growth

 EU- Vietnam free trade agreement (EVFTA) has officially took effect from August 1, 2020, a decade after the negotiation was started and the signing was reached. EVFTA is expected to bring many favorable opportunities to our country's economy and society. On the morning of August 6, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired an online conference "Implementation plan for EVFTA".

Delegates attend the online conference in Binh Duong.

Golden opportunity for cooperation and development

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized that EVFTA and Vietnam - EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) were signed; this demonstrated strategic thinking, opened a large cooperation space between Vietnam and the EU. Like an expressway that connects Vietnam with a huge market space of nearly 500 million people and has the world's leading potential, the EVFTA is expected to assist Vietnam and the EU to accelerate their efforts to recovery the economies severely affected by the Covid-19.

Prime Minister said that both the EU and Vietnam are facing difficulties. Therefore, right now, it is important to decide what to do, how to make efforts to achieve good estimates and results, especially to raise our level up in cooperation with EU partners - a leading mighty economic bloc of the world? The Prime Minister suggested ministries, branches, localities and business communities should focus on discussing and clarifying some contents to effectively implement this agreement.

EVFTA is a comprehensive, high-quality agreement, ensuring a balance of interests for both Vietnam and the EU. Once it is implemented, EVFTA will be a huge boost to Vietnam's exports, help to diversify markets and export products, especially agricultural and aquatic products as well as competitive Vietnamese goods.  With so many trade commitments through tariff elimination, EVFTA is expected to promote long-term relations between Vietnam and the EU, creating a favorable business environment, thereby enhancing trade promotion, investment, creating a new supply chain. In particular, while coping with changes of the Covid-19, countries are making efforts to diversify their supply chains.

Speaking at the conference, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said, with the right awareness and good preparation, Vietnam is able to anticipate and make effective use of the opportunities and expectations brought by EVFTA. EVFTA is considered as a highway for stimulating economic growth.

Institutional reform, sustainable development

The Prime Minister affirmed that the EU is always a market with strict requirements on quality and standards of goods and services, and there is no room for companies that lack persistence, creativity, and poor-quality goods. Therefore, EVFTA opens up opportunities for Vietnam to renew its growth model, prompt Vietnamese enterprises to upgrade themselves, accept new, harder rules to go deeper, and advance to higher values in the supply chain, distribution chain of the EU and global.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister urged ministries, branches, localities and business community to overcome the limitations of awareness and understanding of EVFTA regulators. Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, associations need to proactively disseminate well about EVFTA to all types of businesses. Enterprises and people must understand thoroughly the agreement in order to implement more efficiently.

Concluding the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized that the successful implementation of EVFTA required efforts of both Vietnam and the EU in the process of both epidemic and socio-economic development. Ministries and localities need to be proactive and more energetic in enforcing EVFTA. We need to continue institutional reform effectively for sustainable development. While EVFTA is taking effect on a platform of unpredictable fluctuations around the world, this is both a challenge and an opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises. More than ever, domestic enterprises need to actively transform itself, improve internal strength, production capacity and competitiveness, seize the opportunity to develop.

Reported by Ngoc Thanh - Translated by Ngoc Huynh

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