Welcoming investment flows from ASEAN: Businesses face many opportunities

Dr. Tran Viet Thai, former director of the Center for Foreign Policy and Regional Research under the Institute of Strategic Studies and with his experience in strategic research, said that although it is urgent (by 2018 at the latest) to reduce tariff barriers with traditional products according to signed trade agreements, welcoming new investment sources from the ASEAN region, domestic enterprises also have great opportunities to invest in projects in member countries. other.

According to this expert, Vietnam plays an important role in implementing the 3C strategy of the GMS Program. Because, besides Thailand, Vietnam is the only member of the GMS to participate in all three economic corridors, including the North - South, East - West and Southern economic corridors.

Not only is there a great opportunity to invest in economic corridors between Vietnam and other countries, in the near future, the reduction of tariffs on goods that are often excluded from the scope of traditional FTA agreements (petroleum, tobacco) and the elimination of tariff quotas on sugar, salt, eggs, poultry and tobacco are forecast to also be a condition for increasing the amount of foreign investment capital in Vietnam, as well as an opportunity for domestic enterprises to reach out to dominate. potential markets in the region.

Analyzing more deeply about the impacts, Dr. Tran Viet Thai said that this year, 1,720 tax lines with preferential tax rates from 5% will continue to be cut to 0%. By 2018, over 600 tax lines on sensitive items will be reduced to 0%. It is expected that the implementation of the final commitment in ASEAN will increase import turnover from ASEAN countries, affecting a number of domestic agricultural and industrial sectors, such as plastics, chemicals, vegetable oil, sugar, iron and steel, electronics, refrigeration, household appliances, especially the automobile industry.

Currently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has been building a roadmap for automobile products in the direction of maintaining additional protection time before completely eliminating tariffs in 2018. The proposed plan is to gradually reduce from 50% (2014) to 0% (2018) so that the domestic manufacturing industry can adapt to tax cuts each year and move towards completely eliminating them at the end of the roadmap.

"Vietnamese businesses are facing many favorable opportunities in terms of free customs procedures, logistics services, transportation, IT, rules of origin and technical standards. In addition, businesses can also proactively hire foreign workers when trade and economic barriers are removed, especially skilled labor sources from ASEAN countries," Dr. Tran Viet Thai emphasized.