Vietnam fully prepared for joining AEC

The statement was made by Le Xuan Sang, a member of the European Trade Policy and Investment Support Project (EU-MUTRAP) at the December 19 seminar in Ho Chi Minh City held by the Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM) and EU – MUTRAP to assess Vietnam’s readiness ahead of joining AEC in 2015.

According to the CIEM and MUTRAP report Vietnam has made essential preparations for the approaching ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in terms of governance and institutional and administrative procedure reforms.

The country has actively revised and issued many legal documents and joined ASEAN agreements. It is looking forwards to high-quality playgrounds like trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Vietnam-EU Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation (PCA).

Do Huu Hao, former Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, said the report summed up and analysed Vietnam’s readiness ahead of AEC in terms of socio-economy and results of implementing AEC measures. Accordingly, the report put forwards policy orientations for Vietnam to overcome challenges and grasp opportunities and necessary strategies to effectively and deeply participate the regional playground.

The report showed that Vietnam’s economic growth is unable to deal with shocks on international market like prices or capital flows.

Tran Binh Minh, another MUTRAP member said Vietnam still confronts with many difficulties due to institutional discrepancies and the quality of human resources and infrastructure. In addition, the country is significantly affected by recent developments in the region which includes competition, disputes, middle-income trap and the emerging of major economies like China and India.

Another project member, Nguyen Anh Duong, said Vietnam’s economy is less competitive than that of some regional countries like Indonesia and Myanmar due to low productivity and poor infrastructure.

Vo Tri Thanh, Vice Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), spoke highly of Vietnam’s effort to integrate into AEC and illustrated it through an example that National Single Window Mechanism (NSW) has been implemented since 2005.

Thanh said Vietnam’s implementation of the NSW and modernisation of customs mechanism is more effective than Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Le Xuan Sang concluded that to deeply and widely integrate into the AEC, Vietnam needs to improve investment and business environment, the quality of infrastructure and human resources, especially legal framework.