Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Careful consideration must be given to developing appropriate standards forenterprises to improve their product quality competitiveness in the context ofrapid and intensive international integration, experts have said.

Standardsshould not be considered barriers to export but the inspiration to pushenterprises forward in innovating and growing, especially after the EuropeanUnion – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) took effect.

Vo Tri Thanh,Director of the Institute of Branding and Competition Strategy, said standardswere gaining increasing attention in Vietnam because of the importance tosustainable development and safety to human health.

Forproducers who wanted to expand in international markets, their products mustmeet standards and requirements set by not only international organisations,free trade agreements (FTAs) but also import markets, he said.

It wascritical for enterprises to meet these standards and requirements toparticipate in the global value chains, he stressed.

For Vietnamwhich in the past lagged behind other countries in developing standards, hesaid it would take time for enterprises to improve their capacity.

A plan fordeveloping standards must be developed clearly, Thanh said, adding that thatoutdated, infeasible and harmful-to-human health standards must be eliminatedimmediately while standards which related to technology renovation and forparticipation into the global value chains would take more time to meet.

In addition,he said penalties must be raised to prevent the abuse of standards,he said.

From theperspective of enterprises, To Hoai Nam, Vice President of the VietnamAssociation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, said there was reverseside of standardisation in economic activities.

In thedomestic market, if the standards of a producer were selected to be the generalstandards for the industry or the national standard, it could become a barrierto other producers in the industry, he pointed out.

On theinternational scale, standard was also the biggest issue in bilateral andmultilateral trade agreement negotiations. Standards were often used asbarriers to prevent the flooding of import products which might affect domesticproduction.

Nam saidthat building standards required a comprehensive evaluation of the wholeindustry.

For exportproducts, international standards must be taken into consideration whendeveloping for Vietnam.

Standardsmust be developed for long term, Nam stressed, adding that changing practicewould cause a lot of problems for firms because they must develop productionplans and invest in science and technology to raise their game.

Caution wasneeded because inappropriate standards would hinder the development ofenterprises while the good ones would promote quality and competitiveness, hesaid.

According toNguyen Hoang Linh, Deputy Director of the Directorate for Standards, Metrologyand Quality, firms should pay more attention to developing and applyingstandards in production and operation.

There werenearly 13,000 Vietnamese standards, around 60 percent of which areharmonised with regional and international ones.

Linh saidthat the focus would be placed on developing standards with environmentalfriendliness which would create an advantage for Vietnamese products to meetforeign markets’ demanding requirements.

Specifically,standards for new environmentally-friendly materials and energy would bedeveloped together with standards for climate change response./.