According to Mr. Luong Hoang Thai, Director of Multilateral Trade Policy Department, opening up economic space in RCEP means boosting investment flows thanks to large market size.

Mr. Luong Hoang Thai, Director of Multilateral Trade Policy Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade).

Sir, the world's largest FTA is the  Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership  (RCEP), which was signed after 8 years of negotiation. With a GDP scale of nearly 27,000 billion USD, surely the significance of attracting FDI inflows to Vietnam will be significant?

Indeed, with commitments to open markets in the areas of goods and services,  investment  and harmonization of rules of origin among all participants, as well as strengthening trade facilitation measures. RCEP will create opportunities to develop new supply chains in the region, thereby stimulating investment in supply chain development.

Although the RCEP does not create the effect of opening new markets because ASEAN, including Vietnam already has FTAs ​​with other countries in the bloc, in an indirect aspect, it is the economic space that opens between ASEAN and other countries. partners China, Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the promotion of investment capital by building large-scale market of RCEP is completely real.

Large space will promote investment, but what sectors / areas will the focus be on?

Together with ASEAN countries, Vietnam has the opportunity to become a destination to attract FDI from countries participating in the RCEP Agreement. Telecommunications, information technology, textiles, footwear and electronics sectors are the areas that Vietnam has the potential to attract FDI. With a large economic space like RCEP, investors can choose the investment locations that are most beneficial to them. Currently, a number of countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and even Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia are speeding up investment abroad to expand production and supply chains.

However, the impact of FDI attraction depends on the movements of each country such as national investment attraction policies, as well as policies for each specific field. This is a very important basis for investors to consider and decide where to invest.

It is said that the benefits that RCEP can bring to China, Japan and South Korea is higher than other member countries. What is your opinion on this matter?

The RCEP Agreement is intended to benefit all participating countries, but in terms of specific interests, different groups of countries have different interests. Specifically, for ASEAN countries, this is a new non-value-added FTA in terms of market opening, since ASEAN has FTAs ​​with partners. Instead, with the perspective of harmonizing the existing provisions of the agreements that ASEAN already has with its partners, RCEP is considered to be of high value in reducing transaction costs, attracting FDI and increasing ASEAN's central position in resolving trade conflicts in the region.

I also want to emphasize that, in the context of the world is volatile, especially the World Trade Organization (WTO) is unable to play an effective role in resolving trade conflicts as before, This is not a small value for countries with moderate economic size like ASEAN member countries.

In order   for domestic enterprises to make good use of the benefits of RCEP when this agreement comes into effect, what specific actions will the Ministry of Industry and Trade take to help businesses?

In order to support Vietnamese enterprises to early access and make optimal use of the opportunities that RCEP brings, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has prepared a roadmap to implement the plan of propagating and disseminating RCEP to relevant units and organizations. and domestic enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises; develop specific support programs for each commodity or service sector in which Vietnam has strengths and potentials.

In addition, the ministry will continue to develop market development programs for the export products deemed advantageous by Vietnam to enter the RCEP market.