VN looks towards ASEAN Chairmanship 2020

In particular, ASEAN integration will be among the priorities in the process of international economic integration when Vietnam assumes the ASEAN Chair in 2020.

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) has entered its fourth year of formation and development since the founding milestone of December 31, 2015, and is striving to realize its Vision to 2025, with initial encouraging results having been achieved.

The AEC has created a relatively synchronous production space, which helps promote the common advantage of the ASEAN region. Goods, services, capital, investment and skilled labor will be freely circulating within ASEAN without suffering any discrimination between the member states. Its intra-bloc economic cooperation efforts with partners have brought ASEAN stable economic growth, forecasted to reach 4.9% in 2019, nearly double the world average.

After 24 years of Viet Nam’s ASEAN membership, the region has become one of the leading economic and trade partners of the country. Compared to the time of Viet Nam’s starting to participate in the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1996, trade revenues between Viet Nam and ASEAN have seen more than a 9.5-fold increase, from US$5.9 billion in 1996 to approximately US$56.3 billion in 2018 – US$24.5 billion in export turnover and US$31.8 billion in import revenue.

In addition to the benefits concerning economic growth, ASEAN economic integration has also created positive impacts on Viet Nam’s exports in the direction of diversifying the structure of export products, strengthening the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) and expanding investment opportunities to ASEAN countries as well as outside business opportunities.

ASEAN not only enables Viet Nam to be extensively and comprehensively engaged in intra-bloc cooperation, but also serving as the nucleus facilitating the country to boost economic, trade and investment cooperation with important partners, such as India, the Republic of Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and China, through the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) between ASEAN and these partners.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Viet Nam needs to facilitate the strong participation of the business community and industry associations in the cause of international economic integration. Along with the Government’s efforts, enterprises should proactively improve their capabilities, enhance competitiveness and grasp policies in order to be able to cope with competition, in terms of both quality and quantity, which is brought about by economic integration.

2020 marks an important milestone as Viet Nam takes over the rotating Chairmanship of ASEAN and celebrates 25 years of its ASEAN membership.

 By Vien Nhu