ASEAN economic community (AEC) to be established in 2014 will open may opportunities for Binh Duong provincial enterprises when Vietnam is one of AEC’s officially membership nations.
At Minh Phuong furniture Co.Ltd.
To learn more about AEC and chance and challenge of integration process in 2015 and the subsequent years, Binh Duong Newspaper had an interview with Doctor Vo Tri Thanh, vice head of the Central Economic Institute on his participation at “Challenge and opportunity of AEC” seminar held by the provincial Young Entrepreneurs’ Society.
When was AEC intended to establish, sir?
Firstly, we must understand that AEC is not started since 2015 but it is a process. In 1998, the Ministry of Planning and Investment had the first researches of competitive capacity of ASEAN. In 2004, leaders from the ASEAN bloc of nations agreed to establish an ASEAN Community by 2020, comprising three pillars, namely the ASEAN Political-Security Community, the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, and the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Subsequently, they decided to hasten the establishment of the AEC to 2015. The AEC is an initiative to transform the region into an area with free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labor, and a freer flow of capital.
Could you tell about AEC' goals, sir?
The vision for AEC 2015 is the partial economic union of 10 ASEAN countries, namely Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Brunei, to usher in a new era of economic co-operation.
The four main goals of the AEC are: a single market and production-base; a competitive economic region;
equitable economic development, as external trade is an integral part of the region; and integration into the global economy.
One of the AEC’s goals – the reduction of tariffs on physical goods trade amongst ASEAN countries – has largely been realized, with the exception of sensitive product categories like rice. This is a remarkable achievement. Progress on liberalizing non-tariff barriers, movements of persons and capital as well as trade in services are lagging behind, but may catch up in 2014 and 2015.
So, what opportunities and challenges will Vietnam meet when AEC puts into operation officially?
The first chance is that Vietnam's market will be expanded across nations joining in AEC that includes 600 million people. In addition, AEC will take its membership nations to the world economic community including the EU, US, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea and more.
In order to narrow distance between membership nations, AEC will set out supportive programs for small and medium enterprises in nations of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Philippines. For this supportive programs, Singapore responds them positively. Binh Duong is the strategic partner of Singapore, so one AEC put into operation, this will be a big opportunity for Binh Duong.
What opportunities will AEC's members enjoy?
Once AEC put into operation, ASEAN will become a customs door that is harmonic in standard and quality. The liberalization in trade in goods has already yielded results. Cooperation programs of service, tourism, entertainment, agriculture, green economy, ship-building, automobile, agriculture and more will be developed in the future.
However, aside from advantages, disadvantages remain existed, so we must learn and grasp AEC and world economy's information and legal regulations.
Thanks a lot!
Reported by N.TRINH - Translated by A.C
