Since 2022, based on the Government's directions in Resolution No. 99/NQ-CP promulgating the Government's Action Program for the 2021-2026 term to implement the National Assembly's Resolution on the 5-year Socio-Economic Development Plan 2021-2025, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has developed a Project on a set of indicators to assess the implementation results of FTAs (FTA Index).
The measurement indicators of the FTA Index are not only the basis for enterprises and localities to "reflect on themselves" and evaluate the results of the implementation process and take advantage of the FTA, but also provide maximum support for enterprises from production to sales and export, contributing to maintaining the value chain for business operations.
Sharing at the seminar "FTA Index - The role of local agencies in supporting businesses to take advantage of opportunities and minimize risks from FTAs" recently organized by the Industry and Trade Newspaper, Mr. Le Anh Van - Director of the Center for Legal Support and Human Resources Development (Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises) assessed that the development of the FTA Index is very meaningful and important, because through it there will be a set of tools to measure the level of FTA utilization by businesses, as well as the level of support from local authorities for businesses in taking advantage of FTAs.
At the same time, through this set of indicators, the Government will have a better understanding of the implementation of support for businesses to take advantage of FTAs in localities to have directions and monitor the implementation of FTAs in localities. At the same time, there will be timely solutions and support to overcome difficulties; thereby helping businesses have sustainable development orientation, meeting integration standards.
Given the above positive implications, it can be said that the implementation of the FTA Index set by the Ministry of Industry and Trade is expected to improve, remove difficulties and enhance the capacity to take advantage of FTAs for businesses. In fact, Mr. Le Anh Van said that in the past, the level of FTA information provision for businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, was not clear. In terms of implementation, most small and medium-sized enterprises lack tools to access FTAs.
Therefore, through the FTA Index, businesses can improve their limitations and difficulties in the process of taking advantage of FTAs. At the same time, they can recognize how the State's policies are supporting localities in the area to implement FTAs; helping businesses orient their business strategies, invest in products and goods, meet product quality standards as well as have plans to improve the quality of human resources, etc., enhancing their competitive advantage when reaching out to the international market.
On the local side, Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Hai Phong City - Mr. Nguyen Cong Han said: "Hai Phong is very interested in implementing the Project to build FTA Index, so right after the Project took the first steps, in December 2023, we proactively organized a training program on the Index to evaluate the results of implementing FTAs for state management agencies and enterprises in the city. Contents such as: Introduction/Implementation plan/Guidelines for organizing the implementation of FTA Index assessment have been disseminated to participants". Currently, the Department of Industry and Trade of the city is coordinating with the Foreign Trade University to review the list of enterprises in the area according to the actual operating status to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the surveyed subjects.
Expressing his expectation for the results from the FTA Index, the Director of the Department of Industry and Trade of Hai Phong City said that the Index will support Hai Phong in assessing the level of utilization and effectiveness of the implementation of Free Trade Agreements from the following perspectives: Firstly, assessing the results of the city's implementation of FTAs compared to the action programs issued by the Government as well as the action programs that the city itself has built to implement FTAs, thereby finding out the advantages and limitations in implementing these FTAs, as a basis for policy planning and development strategies in the city. Secondly, assessing the level of effectiveness of FTAs for Hai Phong City, especially assessing the direct beneficiaries such as businesses and consumers. Thirdly, helping investors orient and make investment decisions, thereby encouraging high-quality investment flows into the city to take advantage of opportunities from FTAs.
Based on the results of the Index, localities will know where they are strong and where they are weak, and from there, they will make appropriate adjustments in state management to best implement and take advantage of the FTA.
According to information from the Multilateral Trade Policy Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), the FTA Index is built based on statistical data sources and annual business survey information, through the following activities: Surveying and collecting primary data of domestic private economic enterprises and enterprises in the local state economic sector; collecting secondary data from reliable domestic and foreign information sources; analyzing, building and verifying the index calculation model; evaluating and providing solutions to promote the implementation of FTAs in each locality through the local index; applying information technology in data collection and processing, especially online.
However, Mr. Le Anh Van said that most enterprises lack information about FTAs, especially the commitments on tax reduction are still quite vague; on the other hand, there is a shortage of specialized FTA officers, so the ability to exploit and take advantage of FTAs from enterprises is still weak. In addition, enterprises have not focused on building data on the system of books, production and business documents; information shared by management agencies as well as inter-sectoral coordination. Accordingly, surveying information from enterprises plays a very important role in building an accurate FTA Index, authentic to the reality of taking advantage of FTAs, especially identifying and understanding the difficulties in the process of accessing FTA information of the business community.
According to Mr. Le Anh Van, in order for the survey process to collect accurate and effective information, the agency implementing the survey must closely follow the enterprises to see the level of integration of this business sector. In particular, the form of the form, the survey method, as well as the construction of the questionnaire must be suitable to the reality of the enterprises in each industry. From the information surveyed closely to the enterprises, the authorities will have data to build the FTA Index toolkit - an important set of documents to support enterprises to proactively integrate.
In fact, many businesses are still reluctant to share information. Therefore, the process of implementing the FTA Index needs to promote inter-sectoral coordination to promote and increase businesses' awareness of the significance of the index, so that businesses can grasp and understand to provide accurate data with reality, and the authorities will have a more authentic assessment of businesses' utilization of the FTA. In particular, it is necessary to identify the difficulties and obstacles of businesses in order to make timely adjustments and propose solutions.
On the side of the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, business representative organizations are always ready to connect and support to promote the FTA Index to businesses. However, due to the fact that there are multi-industry and single-industry associations, it is necessary to classify them to have more effective coordination methods; at the same time, there must be training programs for member associations to clearly understand the FTA Index, thereby creating "tentacles" and building a network to effectively implement the FTA Index. "The Association will closely coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and relevant agencies to research and widely promote the FTA Index to the small and medium enterprise community" - Mr. Le Anh Van affirmed.
Source: https://moit.gov.vn/tin-tuc/bao-chi-voi-nguoi-dan/fta-index-ho-tro-doanh-nghiep-tan-dung-co-hoi-giam-thieu-rui-ro-tu-cac-fta.html
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