The Embassy of Denmark and The Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) have signed an agreement to carry out a research on potential impacts of Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreements (FTA) on policy and institutional reforms in Vietnam.

Recently, analyses on the quantitative impacts of the FTA’s tariff elimination have been made available, but those analyses have not yet well addressed policy and institutional adjustments needed to comply with the agreement.

In June 2012, Vietnam and the EU formally launched negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement. The parties undertook their 9th round of negotiation in Sep 2014 and the negotiations is expected to be concluded in the first half of 2015.

Some studies about impacts of FTAs have been carried out by European Trade Policy and Investment Support Project and other institutions.

Besides having some strong assumptions, those studies do not adequately address various aspects in relation with the needs for the policy and institutional adjustment as well as assessment of the readiness of the government and the business communities once the agreement enters into force.

Being named “Unlocking the potential: Vietnam-EU FTA’s implications for policy and institutional reform”, the research will provide more comprehensive inputs to the policy making for restructuring and reforming institutions.

It also provides foreign investors, donors and scholars with a good assessment on both internal and external policies and potential institutional changes in the future due to the EU-VN FTA’s commitments.

“Denmark is pleased to support Vietnam in its increasing integration into the world economy. I hope the research will suggest and point out necessary policy and institutional adjustments to help Vietnam reap most benefits from the FTA” said, Mr. John Nielsen, Ambassador of Denmark, after the signing ceremony.

“Vietnam needs thorough considerations as a small economy being engaged in a FTA with a large partner like EU as well as Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and other FTAs. The report and its conclusions will be submitted to decision makers and the recommendations will hopefully play an important role when it comes to shaping the future policy direction of Vietnam,” Nielsen added.    

The report is expected to be finalized in September 2015.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!