Author Archive: admin

IDENTIFYING EU OPPORTUNITIES FOR VIETNAMESE FIRMS

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The EU-Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement would provide a big impetus to Việt Nam’s exports to the EU and be key to Vietnamese companies penetrating one of the largest and most lucrative markets in the world, experts have said.

Jean Jacques Bouflet, deputy chairman of EuroCham in Việt Nam, said Việt Nam is only the second country after Singapore in Southeast Asia that has “privileged access” to Europe’s 500-million consumer market following the signing of the agreement in June.

Việt Nam is among the top 10 exporters to the EU. It is the EU’s second biggest trade partner and largest exporter in Southeast Asia.

Speaking at a seminar titled “Identifying the opportunities for trade and investment in the context of EVFTA” in HCM City on April 14, Bouflet said Việt Nam’s exports to the EU would increase by 20 per cent in a decade and 40 per cent in the following decade.

EU investment in Việt Nam in key sectors such as automobiles and motorcycles, food, agriculture, aquaculture, green growth, transportation, and logistics have all contributed to its development, he said.

The EVFTA has a very short time frame for tariff reduction with many Vietnamese exports to the EU becoming exempt from tariffs within a few years.

Việt Nam’s competitors in the region such as China, Thailand and Malaysia have not signed a trade deal with the EU, but that does not mean they never would, and businesses must move quickly to take advantage while Việt Nam is in an advantageous position, Bouflet said.

Nguyễn Sơn Trà, deputy head of the WTO and trade negotiation division at the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s multilateral trade policy department, said the EU trade deal would be good for Việt Nam since right in the first year after the deal takes effect taxes on 70.3 per cent of the country’s exports to the EU would be reduced.

With a population of more than 500 million and a combined GDP of over US$15 trillion, accounting for 22 per cent of the world’s GDP, the EU is an extremely large market and the largest exporter and importer in the world with annual trade of $3.8 trillion.

However, Việt Nam’s trade with the bloc is focused on certain countries like Germany, France, the UK, Netherlands and Italy.

Thus, there remain other countries with huge potential and opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises to seize when the EVFTA comes into effect since they have strength in tropical agricultural products, fisheries, textiles and garments, footwear, and furniture, experts said.

Recommendations

Trà said the country must adhere to Rules of Origin (RO) when exporting to the EU, especially because traceability regulations in importing countries have become increasingly strict.

Bouflet said since the EU is a highly demanding market, so exporters should also meet food safety and hygiene standards and management procedures set by it and incorporate social responsibility and transparency of information related to labour and the production environment.

Besides, some kinds of seafood products must comply with IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing regulations.

A legal framework for the origins of Vietnamese products and products with “Made in Việt Nam” labels should also be created, he said.

Producers’ self-certification of origin must comply with Vietnamese regulations as well as EVFTA requirements on RO to prevent origin fraud, he warned.

The use of modern methods would ensure strict control over goods’ authenticity, quality and origin, he added.

VNS

SOLVAY BUSINESS SCHOOL BUSINESS TALK

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Last week, one of our members, Solvay Business School has organised a great event for the Solvay community in the form of a business talk by prof. Pascal on the topic of “Scenario Planning – the art of preparing for an Unknown Future”.

Solvay hopes that his sharing and discussion with audience has helped your business to imagine, decide and transform in this V.U.C.A World (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity). And remember: “Future is not about Technology, but about future behavior using technology”.

Solvay would like to offer their sincere thanks to all the participant and especially to the speaker, and please also continue to keep an eye out for future events by Solvay.

[WE FOOD JSC] SPECIAL OFFER FOR THE 2019 MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL

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Dear valued members,

Once again, Autumn is now upon us and following the arrival of Autumn very soon we will be welcoming the Mid-Autumn Festival. This year, we are pleased to announce a special offer from WE FOOD JSC to Beluxcham’s members in celebration of the Mid-Atumn Festival.

WE FOOD JSC  is introducing their new product, “Elegant Autumn” Gift Collection for the 2019 Mid-Autumn Festival. Especially, the company will be able to customize the gifts as your requirement (print logo, optional Moon cakes/Nuts/Dried Fruits, etc). Please refer the attached Brochure or click HERE for more details.
As the warmest greetings, WE FOOD JSC will offer Beluxcham’s members (with member cards) from 10% up to 20% Off for Mid-Autumn Corporate gift sets when order via www.healthygift.vn or facebook.com/monsieurluxe from 01 to 31/08/2019. In additional, the company will offer special discount for large quantity order.

ELECTRONIC INVOICING NEEDS DETAILED GUIDELINES

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HÀ NỘI — Fourteen months before electronic invoicing will be made mandatory in Việt Nam, which is set for November 1, 2020, there is still much work for the Government to do. Among the most crucial tasks to be completed is providing businesses with guidelines on how to issue and use e-invoices and across-the-board implementation among key State agencies such as the Tax Department, the State Treasury, the Vietnam Directorate of Market Surveillance and insurers.

The absence of guidelines and lack of co-operation among State agencies have proven to be a major hurdle for business to completely switch to e-invoices. For example, while the tax authorities encourage business to switch to using e-invoices they may not be accepted at the State Treasury or by insurers, said BKAV head of corporate client department Nguyễn Khơ Din. The company is a leading Vietnamese firm in the field of cyber-security, software and e-solutions for governments.

“Without guidelines, businesses currently have many questions over how to issue e-invoices, including small details such as what date to issue them, whose signature to include or whether it is necessary to include a signature,” Din said.
He said Government agencies must quickly lay down a roadmap with all the tasks for businesses to complete from now until 2020 to ensure a smooth implementation of e-invoices on a national scale.

It’s also more complicated to correct mistakes made in e-invoices compared to traditional paper invoices.
“Businesses used to just issue another invoice to replace one with mistakes. With e-invoices they will have to issue separate adjustments for each mistake made in the original,” said Nguyễn Hoài Hương from the Defence Economic Technical Industry Corporation.
This, in turn, would create further problems for their customers when they need to file those in other transactions, she added.
Mạc Quoc Anh, deputy director of the Hà Nội SME Association stressed the need to create a different policy for SMEs and traditional family businesses. He said such economic enterprises often faced severe financial and infrastructure limitations, which might make it very difficult for them to adopt e-invoices.

While experts had pointed out that e-invoices would help businesses significantly cut costs and speed up transactions, Anh said many SMEs would still need convincing to make the switch to using e-invoices. He urged for more effort to be put in raising awareness about e-invoices and their economic benefits among small business owners.

VNS

 

AGRICULTURAL EXPORT VALUE UP 2% IN FIRST SEVEN MONTHS OF 2019

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HÀ NỘI – The agricultural sector gained US$23.03 billion from farming, forestry and fishery exports in the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 2 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). The figure includes $3.55 billion of exports in July.

Major farm produce shipped overseas brought home $10.84 billion, with five billion-dollar categories including coffee ($1.8 billion), rubber ($1.1 billion), rice ($1.73 billion), cashews (nearly $1.8 billion) and fruits and vegetables ($2.3 billion).

However, the ministry said the total export value of the major agricultural products fell 8.2 per cent year on year due to a drop in several products like cashews (20.6 per cent), pepper (25.2 per cent), coffee (12 per cent) and rice (16 per cent).

The export prices of two main seafood exports, tra fish and shrimp, also dropped 3.2 per cent and 10.4 per cent to $1.16 billion and $1.73 billion, respectively, causing the total export value of seafood products to drop 1 per cent to $4.68 billion.

From January to July, shipments of the main forestry products earned the country about $6 billion, up 17.3 per cent year on year. This included $5.6 billion from wood and wooden products, up 16.1 per cent, and $264 million from bamboo and rattan products, soaring 46.6 per cent.

The ministry said global economic growth was projected to slow while agricultural development will bounce back in many countries. This combination of factors would pose a challenge to the country’s forestry exports.

Fierce competition would pull prices of exports down. Large importers of Vietnamese goods like the US, the EU, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK) had imposed strict standards on quality management, food safety and origin traceability.

The ministry would work with businesses and associations to keep a close watch on the development of international markets and increase inspections to prevent smuggling.

Besides co-ordinating with ministries and sectors to stabilise traditional export markets and expand into new ones, helping reduce dependence on single country, the ministry would give production guidance to localities to ensure their products meet importers’ traceability requirements.

Attention would also be paid to developing brands for agricultural products, particularly those exported to the Chinese market, while authorities would set up a co-ordination mechanism with the Chinese General Administration of Customs to remove bottlenecks in agricultural trade between the two countries.

Fruit, vegetable exports

The ministry also reported the vegetable and fruit industry, which showed strong export growth in recent months, nevertheless post a slight reduction in export value in the first seven months of the year, down 0.8 per cent year on year to $2.3 billion, including $269 million in July.

China was the biggest importer of Vietnamese vegetables and fruits with nearly $1.5 billion, up 1.1 per cent year on year, accounting for 71.9 per cent of the market share. It was followed by the US ($70.2 million) and the RoK ($65.3 million).

Impressive growth was seen in exports of fruits and vegetables to Cameroon (up 10.16 times), the Dominican Republic (up 8.37 times) and Guam (5.11 times).

The Agro Processing and Market Development Department said the sector would have more chances to expand its export markets thanks to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the recently signed EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

The department advised businesses study the opportunities and challenges of the European market and markets of the 10 CPTPP member states and improve the quality of their products.

VNS