A €750,000 project sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italian has helped Vietnam better understand principles of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on subsidy policies.

Carried out from 2004-2006, the project has provided training in international commercial laws and research on industrial and agricultural subsidy policies.

Manager of the project Prof. Claudio Dordi said subsidy policies are greatly important to a number of developing countries during their process of integration into the world economy. Those policies do help the industries regarded as strategic pillars of the national economy but affected in a negative manner by challenges from foreign competitors.

Vietnam recently applied subsidy policies at low volume, but its subsidy methods were not in line with WTO principles, said Luong Hoang Thai, Deputy Director of the Department for Multilateral Trade Policies under the Ministry of Trade. Meanwhile, many nations have provided much larger subsides in accepted terms.