Taking advantage of free trade agreements in the new context

Up to now, 15 free trade agreements (FTAs) have been signed by our country with countries around the world and have come into effect. In particular, the province's export enterprises have gradually caught up with the general trend of the whole country in taking advantage of opportunities from participating in FTAs.

Production of handicraft products for export at Nam Hai Company Limited, Yen Tien Commune (Y Yen).

Nam Dinh Silk Textile Joint Stock Company is one of the typical units that have exploited the advantages that FTA brings. The Company's traditional partner for many years is the Japanese market with the product being high-class fabric for making suits. This is the third largest export market of Vietnam after the United States and China and is also the partner with which Vietnam has signed many FTAs (Vietnam - Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA), ASEAN - Japan Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (AJEPA), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP). Therefore, the Company has had this market remove trade barriers, tariffs... in exporting goods. Mr. Dao Van Phuong, General Director of the Company said: Textile products are one of the items that the Japanese market has a large consumption in the world, so the goods produced by the Company have more and more advantages to increase exports. In addition to traditional customers, Nam Dinh Silk Textile Joint Stock Company also has a joint venture with a unit in Japan to produce fabrics according to the partner's techniques and technology with an output of about 8,000 tons/year. The cooperation With Japanese partners, the Company is required to invest in improving new technology to reduce product costs, increase scale, capacity and "green" and circular production. In 2022, the Company boldly invested about 40 billion VND in technology for a closed-chain fabric production system, helping to optimize production activities, save costs, diversify products and improve quality, increasing competitiveness with imported products. Thanks to that, the Company also enhances its brand, strengthens its reputation in the domestic market... Duc Giang Corporation - Joint Stock Company (DUGARCO) and a number of large domestic garment enterprises order fabrics to produce uniforms, suits... Although the market in the first months of 2023 faced many difficulties, the Company still filled orders and ensured jobs for workers.

Mr. Phung Dinh Thong, Director of Thang Loi Company Limited (Nam Dinh city) shared: “The company specializes in manufacturing cast mechanical products for the mining, thermal power, cement, chemical, and machine manufacturing industries, which is one of the province's strengths. From proactively exploiting the opportunities of FTAs, the company has increasingly increased its scale, linked and cooperated with foreign partners to invest, put into operation a system of machinery and equipment, and apply modern specialized software. Especially projects associated with Japanese enterprises applying digital technology , researching and successfully designing automatic continuous heat treatment furnaces combined with Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to remotely monitor and collect data, helping businesses continue to automate processes and cut operating costs, improving product quality. Currently, the company continues to move faster in the journey of improving the quality, reputation, and brand of products with foreign partners, increasingly increasing the export output of products to markets. The school requires strict technical standards and quality like Japan, Germany, the Netherlands...

Nam Hai Company Limited, Yen Tien Commune (Y Yen) is a business specializing in the production of handicraft products for export, so the company's leaders pay special attention to proactively approaching and exploiting the advantages of FTAs. In the context of current declining consumer demand, the Company has taken full advantage of the benefits of e-commerce activities, from searching, offering to directly contacting customers through online channels, large e-commerce sites, global scale such as Amazon, Alibaba... In addition to the support of functional forces in checking partner information, researching the market, especially the European market, the Company has actively innovated modern technology, meeting the conditions of localization rate, labor, as well as product origin. In that way, the Company soon stabilized orders, maintaining jobs for all workers.

According to the assessment of the Provincial People's Committee, the new generation FTAs with the advantages they bring have helped businesses in the province increase export output, especially the province's key export industries such as textiles, footwear, etc. Especially in the current context, most markets are facing numerous difficulties, the provincial authorities and functional branches have increased recommendations and support for businesses to continue to make the best use of incentives from FTAs signed by our country with countries around the world and have come into effect to ensure maintaining export growth in 2023. In order to enjoy the clear benefits that FTAs can bring like the above businesses, especially the tariff incentives that continue to be expanded according to the roadmap in the coming time, the province recommends that each business in the province should closely follow information and instructions from the authorities to proactively improve their capacity further, meeting the conditions on localization rate, labor, and product origin. Notably, businesses must increase solutions to adapt to the fact that FTA partners are increasingly promoting the implementation and monitoring of environmental, climate, green transformation and sustainable development issues. In addition, the Provincial People's Committee also directed departments, branches and localities to innovate methods of supporting businesses according to the roadmap for implementing FTAs, focusing on supporting the actual needs of each group of businesses according to scale and industry, and creating a connection mechanism between State agencies and business associations. Strengthening orientation and support for localities and businesses to change production methods according to market signals, creating sources of goods, building brands to meet official export requirements associated with brand building to promote sustainable exports. In addition, it is necessary to focus on coordinating with units under relevant ministries and branches to increase trade promotion activities, opening up new markets and potential markets such as Africa, the Middle East and South America./.

Article and photos: Thanh Thuy

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