Regional brothers stand tall to prosper

Vietnam is set to cement its trade ties with neighbouring Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

A bilateral trade promotion, information exchange and human resource development agreement was made between Vietnam’s Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang and his foreign counterparts in the meeting of economic ministers from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam late last month in Vientiane.

The member countries agreed on a 16-point action plan drawing specific measures to boost economic and trade relationship among four countries this year.

The measures focus on the development of bilateral trade promotion, exchanges of information regarding trade and investment policies, border economic zone development, market management, human resource development and negotiations of regional trade agreements.

Latest figures from Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam’s trade revenue with the other three countries reached nearly $2.5 billion in 2010, up nearly 34 per cent from the previous year.

Vietnamese businesses have so far registered nearly $5 billion in investment projects in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

The economic ministerial meeting was held after the 17th ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Retreat opened in Laos to build an ASEAN cooperation plan for 2011 and discuss the regional economic integration in the years to come. The most important content of the meeting was to accelerate regional integration prioritising the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) building progress until 2015.

ASEAN member countries realised 83.2 per cent of the AEC measures during 2008-2009 with Vietnam being the top three countries recording the realisation of 94.2 per cent of the measures.

But, ASEAN countries are facing challenges concerning to insufficient legalisation of many regional commitments and unharmonious policies among member countries. There will be 104 AEC measures that need to be completed during 2010-2014, including 60 per cent of the measures to be implemented during 2011.

The ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting confirmed support for the four countries including Vietnam to narrow the gap with the remaining ASEAN countries, focusing on the development of agriculture, investment, transportation, favourable trade conditions and the ability to implement free trade agreements with their partners.

Priority will also be given to small- and medium-sized enterprise support during their competition and regional integration.

The ministers also agreed on measures to expand ASEAN’s cooperation and partnership with other partners such as China, India, Japan, Russia and the European Union. – VIR