A workshop was held in Hanoi on November 2 to enhance domestic enterprises’ exports to ASEAN nations.
The event was jointly organised by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency and the Asia -Pacific Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Addressing that event, Deputy Director of the Agency Ta Hoang Linh said the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), with 600 million people from 10 member nations and the annual GDP reaching 2 trillion USD, will create a highly competitive economic zone to integrate into the global economy.
The community also helps boost economic growth rate, create jobs, draw foreign investment, narrow down the development gap among member nations, among others, Linh said.
Vice head of the Department Do Quoc Hung highlighted the benefits to be enjoyed by domestic enterprises when selling their products to ASEAN nations, like increased trade value, export structure change, higher competitiveness and expanded markets.
He also pointed to the challenges, such as high competition with ASEAN products and technical barriers.
Hung called on domestic enterprises to update their technology, improve product quality and localisation rate to improve their competitiveness.
They should also focus on brand name establishment based on the quality and added values of their products, as well as research and development, and promotion to fully tap the regional market.
According to the Ministry, ASEAN is one of Vietnam’s most important trade partners, second to China, which is reflected by a remarkable surge in bilateral trade value, which hit 42.1 billion USD in 2005 from 3.3 billion USD in 1995.
Vietnam has seen an annual average increase of 17.1 percent in its export to ASEAN, from nearly one billion USD in 1995 to 18.3 billion USD in 2015.
Source: VNA