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Gov’t to keep business updated on overseas issues of interest
An agreement between the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the HCM City People’s Committee unveiled yesterday has laid out the regulations on information exchanges and consultancy policies related to business activities throughout the region.
The agreement clarifies the ministry’s duties to inform informing local businesses about international market needs for importing goods and the plans of foreign investors.
Also highlighted are the necessity of consulting local enterprises on business-related legal drafts before their implementation and the co-operation between local businesses and policy makers in dealing with fluctuations in prices, market, supply and demand.
Moreover, the leaders of both government bodies will meet every year in June and December to exchange information and discuss the arrangement’s efficacy. Ha Noi and HCM City will take turns hosting the meetings.
MoIT also launched its co-operation with the EU’s Multilateral Trade Assistance Project (MUTRAP) at a conference to let local enterprises, business associations and university researchers know about a new phase of MUTRAP’s grants. MUTRAP is a fund that has supported Vietnamese businesses since 1998, and is drafting a new set of financial support packages suited to the conditions of post-WTO accession.
The conference allowed experts from the EU and MoIT to explore the real needs of the city’s businesses, stimulating proposals to MUTRAP in the process. All plans and opinions from the conference will be taken into consideration when details for the implementation of MUTRAP III are finalized by November.
Other talking points at the conference included the initial impacts of WTO membership on socio-economic conditions in Viet Nam and the challenges ahead for many business associations in the country’s south, where enterprises must contend with inconsistent government policies and poor infrastructure and human resources.
Serious backup
Huynh Quang Dau, general director of the An Giang Province Agricultural Technology Service Company and vice president of the Viet Nam Fruit Association, used a recent incident to exemplify the struggles those associations faced and why financial, technological and work force support was needed.
"Last July, a serious back-up at HCM City’s ports blocked fruit containers shipped from the Cuu Long Delta to the city for three days. It turned all our fruits and vegetables into trash," said Dau.
Other non-profit business associations, including the Union of Business Associations of HCM City, asked for the fund’s support in the training and education of their staff as the focus so far had been mainly on MoIT staff.
The problems addressed and the insights gained from MUTRAP’s first two phases will receive extensive deliberation so that its third phase can yield the best results.
VNN
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