To grasp opportunities in the integration process, the country’s trade development strategy in the future should change. An export development project in the 2006-2010 period, which has been approved by the Government, aims to create a favourable procedure for sectors to develop, improving their competitiveness and penetrating deeply international markets.

Vietnam has become a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with numerous rights and obligations directly relating to competition between domestic and foreign commodities and services. The most important thing is how the country makes the best of these rights and obligations to increase the competitiveness of its commodities, services as well as enterprises.

As new Vietnamese Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung’s visits to three of Vietnam’s neighouring countries have already gone beyond the sphere of courtesy visits according to ASEAN practice. They have clearly helped promote Vietnam’s relations of comprehensive cooperation, particularly in economics, trade and investment, with Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visits to Cambodia, Laos and Thailand are of great significance to the relations between Vietnam and the three countries in particular and among Southeast Asian region as a whole. The visits will open up new opportunities for these countries to boost multi-faceted cooperation for the benefit of each country and the whole region as well.

According to Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai, total foreign direct investment capital into Vietnam this year will hit a record high of US$10 billion, the largest ever since 1998. The figure is expected to rise considerably next year when Vietnam becomes an official member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

After joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Vietnam will have to remove agricultural subsidies and comply with WTO rules that are being applied by other members. The important thing is how to clarify the form of subsidy that can or can’t be applied.

The approval of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) legislation for Vietnam by the US House of Representatives and the Senate on December 9 with a majority of votes in favour shows that Congress has overcome all barriers to act for the benefit of US enterprises and relations between the two countries. With this important move, Vietnam and the US have finalised the process of fully normalising bilateral trade.

The Vietnamese real estate market has shown positive signs in the wake of the country’s becoming an official member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The real estate business circles say that never before have foreign investors paid so much attention to the Vietnamese real estate market as at present.

The Prime Ministers of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia began their two-day tripartite meeting in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong on December 4 to accelerate the building of the Development Triangle, with the aim of serving the practical interests of national construction and defence in each country.

November 2006 went down in Vietnamese history as a memorable experience of four important events.