Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh made the remark on the sidelines of the 24th ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Retreat (AEM Retreat 24), which took place in Singapore on March 1-2.
According to him, Vietnam has actively collaborated with ASEAN countries in developing the Trade Facilitation Index (TFI) to measure the level in each member state. Based on it, ASEAN will give recommendations to each nation on measures to be improved to reach the goals of reducing 10 percent in trade costs by 2020 and doubling the intra-bloc trade value by 2025.
The country has also proactively implemented the initiative on the ASEAN Wide Self-Certification (AWSC), which aims to replace two other pilot mechanisms on self-certification.
The AWSC will help Vietnamese entrepreneurs self–certify their products to ship to nine other ASEAN nations rather than to several ones, which helps save them time, costs, and resources.
During the two-day retreat, ASEAN economic ministers reached agreements on priorities designed by the host to promote e-commerce, trade facilitation, services and integration, thus creating a favourable business climate via realising the targets of the AEC Blueprint 2025.
