After nearly 1 year of entry into force, the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) has been and continues to open up many new opportunities for trade exchanges between Vietnam and France, attracting the attention of foreign investors. Many French businesses come to Vietnam.
Exploring and rediscovering Vietnam, seeking new opportunities with new favorable conditions is the purpose that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Saône & Loire province of France aims to when organizing the Business Forum to exchange on the EVFTA Agreement on September 16. More than 50 large enterprises in the province of Saône & Loire and neighboring localities attended, including big names in the fields of pharmaceuticals, agriculture, wood and machinery manufacturing.
Addressing businesses in Saône & Loire province, Vietnamese Ambassador to France Dinh Toan Thang said that the EVFTA Agreement has opened up great opportunities for all businesses in both Vietnam and France, but above all, This agreement is a big boost in awareness of Vietnam’s image in the evaluation of international investors.
Ambassador Dinh Toan Thang informed that Vietnam is currently the 3rd largest economy in ASEAN and with a population of nearly 100 million people, a sustainable growth engine lasting many years, with geographical location. Importantly, as a gateway to Southeast Asia and wider, the Indo-Pacific region, Vietnam has great potential to meet the needs of investors and investors. French enterprises.
Agreeing with this statement, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Saône & Loire province, Mr. Michel Suchaud said that Vietnam and Saône & Loire province share similar geographical advantages. Both are important strategic trade crossroads of Southeast Asia and Europe.
According to Mr. Suchaud, with a population of nearly 100 million people and a middle class expected to account for 50% of Vietnam’s population by 2035, Vietnam’s demand for infrastructure development, energy as well as consumption huge, turning Vietnam into a land of opportunity, an indispensable partner for French businesses.
Saône & Loire is the 6th largest province in France by area and is famous for high quality agricultural products such as Bourgogne wine, cheese, beef as well as having a number of large enterprises in the field of pharmaceuticals and processing. Woodworking, water transport…, Mr. Michel Suchaud believes that Saône & Loire province can bring many solutions to the Vietnamese side.
“The first step is to introduce businesses in Saône & Loire province to the EVFTA Agreement, as well as the support services that we are implementing after this Agreement comes into effect. We have also identified a number of priority French export sectors to Vietnam, such as high-end consumer products, wine, equipment supply in transport packages or medical equipment. . These are all areas that businesses in the province of Saône & Loire can fully meet. We also realize that there have been a lot of favorable improvements thanks to the EVFTA and in terms of financial and legal security, we investors do not have any concerns when investing in Vietnam,” he said. Michel Suchaud pointed out.
At the forum, the investment and trade representatives of the Vietnamese Embassy in France, the representatives of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam and the French customs and international cooperation experts provided the following information: Latest information on Vietnam’s economic development, improvements in the investment environment in Vietnam, as well as priority areas of Vietnam’s investment and trade strategy.
Ngoài ra, các đại diện thương mại và đầu tư của Việt Nam cũng giới thiệu chi tiết các lĩnh vực xuất khẩu thế mạnh mà Việt Nam hoàn toàn có thể đáp ứng được đối với các doanh nghiệp nhập khẩu của Pháp, như linh kiện điện tử, hàng tiêu dùng cũng như các sản phẩm nông nghiệp độc đáo.
In fact, after nearly a year after the EVFTA came into effect, causing tariff barriers to be gradually removed, trade exchange between Vietnam and Europe in general and France in particular is having great push. helping to bring more Vietnamese export products to the French market.
Thibault Giroux, representative of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam, said that through discussions with businesses in Saône & Loire province, Thibault Giroux, a representative of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam, who has spent nearly 20 years researching and working with the Vietnamese market Attending the forum to learn about EVFTA, he still noticed the great interest of the French side in the Vietnamese market.
Tuy nhiên, ông Giroux cho rằng, sau gần 1 năm Hiệp định EVFTA có hiệu lực, việc đẩy mạnh truyền thông, tổ chức các cuộc trao đổi, tiếp xúc giữa doanh nghiệp cũng như đại diện chính quyền hai bên vẫn vô cùng cần thiết, vì nhiều doanh nghiệp Pháp vốn đã rất quan tâm đến Việt Nam nhưng cần nhiều thông tin hơn về một Việt Nam đã khác so với trước kia. Ngược lại, phía Việt Nam hoàn toàn có thể mở rộng các hoạt động thực địa, xây dựng thêm nhiều hợp tác ở cấp độ địa phương tại Pháp, không chỉ là các hợp tác, trao đổi thương mại giữa các tập đoàn lớn.
Mr. Giroux also said that although the epidemic situation is causing many difficulties, it is only a short term and in general, French businesses are still very confident in the Vietnamese market.
“The epidemic also has some impacts, but in the short term, it does not have a great impact on the overall EVFTA Agreement as well as trade exchanges between Vietnam and France. The current situation is very difficult for French and Vietnamese investors to go back and forth to explore the market, but I have great confidence that Vietnam will soon come out of its medical difficulties and in a few months we will see Vietnam is expected to reopen to investors, as well as allow Vietnamese exporters to go to France and Europe. We will quickly return to normalcy,” Giroux said.
Source: VOV