The ASEAN Economic Community is expected to open up many new opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises, especially in commodity exports (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – Vietnamese businesses have not yet tappedopportunities brought by the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) to boost exports tothe ASEAN market, said experts at a seminar in Ho Chi Minh City on October 10.
With a market of 660 million people and a GDP of nearly 2.6 trillion USD, the AECis now the sixth largest economy globally and is projected to rank fourth in2030. Therefore, it is expected to open up many new opportunities forVietnamese enterprises, especially in commodity exports.
However, since the AEC was established three years ago, Vietnamese companieshave not yet created any breakthroughs in exporting their goods to other ASEAN membercountries, said participants.
According to Pham Thanh Kien, Director of the HCM City Department of Industryand Trade, there was no drastic increase in the city’s exports to the ASEAN marketsince the debut of the AEC and even its export growth tends to graduallydecrease.
Hecited that HCM City’s 2016 exports to ASEAN members rose 13 percent against theprevious year but in 2017, the figure was only 4 percent year-on-year.
Thecity’s exports are rising but imports are rising faster, at 8.15 billion USDlast year, which was 2.6 times higher than exports, he added.
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PhamThiet Hoa, Director of the HCM City Investment, Trade and Promotion Centre,said the reasons for the limited exports to ASEAN markets are lack of productdiversity, uncompetitive prices, limited distribution system, and lack of coordinationwith trade facilitation authorities.
Firms need to better research the requirements for exporting to these markets,learn the culture of their target markets and pay attention to businessdecisions such as working with foreign business partners, especially those inIslamic countries, he added.
Sharing the view with Hoa, Kien said besides improving their productioncapabilities, firms need to do extensive market research, look for new tradeopportunities and network with trustworthy local distributors.
Nguyen Thi Tue Anh, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for EconomicManagement, said Vietnamese firms now have greater opportunities than ever toexport to ASEAN member states.
But while Vietnam’s imports from ASEAN countries have increased sharply since2015, its exports to the highly competitive markets have not.
To make the best use of the AEC’s potential, Vietnamese businesses need tostand ready to tap opportunities. They must change their mindsets and consider competitionpressure a motivation for renovation and development, Anh said.
Local firms should actively study and update information relating to preferentialtariff commitments and requirements for product origin in order to fully tapopportunities to develop markets, while investing more in productiontechnology, administration and human resources quality, he added.
⛄ Held by Saigon Times newspaper and Saigon Times Club’s 2030 BusinessClub, the seminar was attended by executives from around 300 firms.-VNA
