Vietnam and ASEAN Economic Community: AEC Year 1 at a Glance

On this occasion, a seminar on "Vietnam and ASEAN Economic Community" organized by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry was held on December 28th in Hanoi summing up the achievements and challenges of the AEC.

After nearly one year of the implementation of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the greatest achievement that all 10 member countries have achieved is the free movement of trade in goods. This is the assessment of most experts at the seminar "Vietnam and ASEAN Economic Community: AEC Year 1 at a Glance".

Accordingly, Vietnam and ASEAN countries removed approximately 97% of the total 10,000 tariff lines for goods movement among AEC countries with the vision to eliminate 99% of tariff lines by 2018.

Nguyen Thi Thu Trang – Head of WTO Centre, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry – said: “With the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community,  ASEAN member countries are determined to implement the common objectives in the formation of one single market and manufacturing hub through economic cooperation, sustainable development and fair competition”.

However, after 1 year, there have been just a few Vietnamese enterprises that are actively participating in AEC.

“Some Vietnamese enterprises still face difficulties. For example, when enterprises want to find information related to exporting their products to ASEAN countries, taxes and specific procedures for that product, they have to look for them through many different sources. It might hinder their production activities”, Nguyen Thi Thu Trang add.

In addition, the AEC portal for businesses, - a tool for searching information in the framework of AE - has been introduced at the conference.

The AEC portal for businesses is a part of the cooperation project between the VCCI and the UK Embassy in Vietnam to help Vietnam implement trade liberalization and international investment. This portal provides information about legal business documents, Vietnam's implementations in the AEC, and tools for tariff searching. Therefore, it will help Vietnamese enterprises be more active in international economic integration.