Viet Nam’s first year of World Trade Organization (WTO) membership has led the world to start watching the nation’s economy like never before, said former Deputy Trade Minister Luong Van Tu, head of the Vietnam’s delegation to the WTO and now senior advisor to the Government's post-WTO Program, in discussion with journalists.

Mr. Luong Van Tu, former Deputy Trade Minister and now senior advisor to the Government's post-WTO Program

Asked, “After one year of entering WTO, has Viet Nam made the best of its membership?”, Mr. Tu replied, “Yes, we have. Viet Nam’s people and enterprises now understand much more about working within the WTO. Viet Nam has taken advantage of its WTO membership well in attracting more foreign investment.”
 
“Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the US and the world’s multinational corporations are all now looking more closely at Viet Nam’s markets,” he explained.
 
“Exports are increasing and trade issues are being resolved”, he added, noting that, “Although garment exports to the US were being monitored by the US government, because it was a unilateral action and US investigators concluded Vietnamese enterprises aren’t dumping in the US market, the US has stopped investigating Vietnamese apparel imports.”
 
“EU nations, Canada and Turkey have also lifted their quotas on Vietnamese goods, and that too is good”, the  former Deputy Trade Minister added before noting, “We as well are bolstering our administrative reforms.”
 
When asked, “Do you have any forecast for when Viet Nam will achieve double-digit growth, from the perspective of someone who took part in the WTO negotiations directly?”, he responded, “In two or three years, if and only if we do our best and take full advantage of this chance for development. It took China five years.”
 
“However,” he added, “it’s important we continue reforms many fields to boost development effectively. Other countries are now focused on Viet Nam, so we have to catch this chance while it’s here.”
 
When asked, “What else does Viet Nam have to do to reach growth targets after accession to WTO?”, Mr. Tu said, “Foreign investment must keep increasing but localities have yet to prepare sufficiently, so ODA (Official Development Assistance) is being disbursed slowly and FDI projects are meeting too many obstacles in their implementation.”
 
“As we’ve only acceded to WTO for a year, these issues are not yet big problems, but they must be managed better each year”, he said, “Otherwise, investors will get disappointed.”
 
In addition, Mr. Tu emphasized, Government should switch from direct management by fixing prices, licensing and orders to indirect management, formulating policies, laws and standards for enterprises to follow.
 
Explaining his opinion,  former Deputy Trade Minister Tu noted it is correct when one complains of increasing world prices causing inflation in Viet Nam. But, he added, because other countries are also affected by world prices but can curb their own inflation rates, we must admit our approach has not done too well.