Firms advised to better product quality to boost exports to EU

Overview of Vietnam-EU Trade Forum (Source: VNA)

The advice was made by Miriam Garcia Ferrer, Head of the Trade and Economic Section of the Delegation of the European Union to Vietnam, at a Vietnam-EU Trade Forum on the EVFTA, which was jointly held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the delegation in Ho Chi Minh City on July 30.

She suggested businesses obtain a thorough grasp of market information, rules of origin and regulations of the EU to carry out long-term strategies so as to gain a firm foothold in the market.

Jean-Jacques Bouflet, Vice Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Eurocham), said that with the EVFTA and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), investment flows from the EU will shift to Vietnam, with the focus on clean energy, agriculture and food production.

He cited a survey of the German Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam as saying that 55 percent of German enterprises operating in the Southeast Asian nation are planning to expand their operation.

The official stressed that European enterprises want to boost the building of production chains with local ones, thus bringing about more cooperation opportunities for local ones to participate in value chains.

To bring into full play these opportunities, Vietnamese enterprises should actively renew their production and management methods to reach standards and development trends of European partners, he suggested.

Speaking at the forum, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong said that two-way trade increased by 13folds from 4.1 billion USD in 2000 to 55.8 billion USD in 2018, of which 41.9 billion USD came from Vietnam’s exports.

As of late June 2019, 27 European countries and territories invested in Vietnam with 3,205 projects totaling 53.1 billion USD.-VNA

Source: VNA