Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen: 'In challenges there are always hidden opportunities'

(Baonghean) - In 2015, Vietnam signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and joined the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). What are the advantages and challenges of economic integration for Nghe An? Nghe An Newspaper reporters had an interview with Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen - Former member of the Party Central Committee, Former Minister of Trade on this issue.

Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen speaks at the ASEAN Conference - Regional Economic Integration. Photo: Archive.

Need to exploit Nghe An human potential

PV:According to you, what advantages does Nghe An have when joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)?

Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen:I once held the position of Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, and have been away from Nghe An for more than 10 years, but I have been following the situation of the province closely and am very pleased with the changes and movements that Nghe An has recently undergone. Specifically, the results of attracting foreign investment have increased, with large investors entering the province, including the VSIP industrial park.

The biggest and most important potential is that Nghe An has human resources, hard-working and diligent workers, Nghe An people are intelligent and eager to learn, and this is the most valuable asset, the province must find a way to promote this resource. In terms of products, the province has many things but the scale is small. In the immediate future, we can take advantage of some products that can boost exports to the TPP market. That is textile products. Although not yet a large center compared to other provinces, it has attracted many projects and many businesses investing not only in Vinh City but also in other districts in the area. When TPP comes into effect, textile taxes will be reduced to 0%, the competitiveness will be very large and the tax difference will be enough for us to increase textile exports to the TPP.

Second is electronic equipment and components, although Nghe An does not have large sales, in recent years we have attracted investment in this field, for example, the Korean company in Bac Vinh Industrial Park, produces products that can be exported to TPP with a very high growth rate, it can be said that this is the product with the highest growth rate in the world market, including TPP, EU and this equipment has had its tax reduced to 0% very quickly, and we can increase exports. With VSIP Industrial Park, foreign investors will invest in the field of electronic components - electrical equipment...

The third potential is wooden furniture and wooden products, except for wood chips because the EU imposes very high taxes on wood chips and does not encourage the export of wood chips, mainly encouraging planted wooden furniture, including outdoor and indoor wood... Nghe An is not the largest wooden furniture producing region, but Nghe An is home to very good production facilities.

But I repeat, the greatest potential is Nghe An people, we need to take advantage of this resource, develop high-tech industry, and use the province's good human resources.

Thanks to import and export activities, Nghe An's turnover is maintaining a good growth rate.

In every challenge lies opportunity.

PV:Along with those strengths, what are the biggest challenges and barriers of Nghe An, sir?

Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen:The biggest challenge is the competitiveness of enterprises, which is formed on the basis of institutional competitiveness and the business environment - decided by the State. The central State decides the institutions, the local State, provincial and district authorities decide the business environment. The business environment concretizes the contents of the institutions into business activities in the area.

The problem is that Nghe An must bring the provincial competitiveness index, mainly the business environment, to the average or good level of Vietnam - that is the biggest challenge for provincial agencies. How can agencies and departments truly be honest agencies serving the people?

As for businesses, they must improve product quality, improve product competitiveness, and business competition because TPP and WTO both set very high competition requirements, product competition, business competition, competition between domestic businesses and foreign businesses investing and operating in the domestic market without any discrimination. This is a huge pressure. But the scariest thing is not daring to face challenges, because challenges always contain opportunities, challenges create opportunities.

A corporation owner once said it very well: I have too many challenges to succeed. Overcome the challenges to find solutions and go to success.

PV:There is currently information that the US is withdrawing from the TPP. How will this issue affect the domestic market, sir?

Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen: Up to this point, in the announcement of Donald Trump's election process, as well as the announcement right after he was elected President of the United States, he said that his first task was to withdraw from the TPP. Personally, I think that Mr. Trump's announcement cannot be a permanent policy because the trend of free trade is a trend that comes from its own internal energy, from the development of science and technology, the development of production that forces the organization of inter-markets and this is also the pressure of US multinational companies, not the decision of any individual. Maybe he cannot do it in the near future, but in the next few years, the TPP must be implemented because this is a matter of law, globalization is the big trend of the times.

But not only TPP, we also have free trade agreements,... this is also an agreement with a fast free opening speed, even faster than TPP in textiles and many other items with tax reduction speed even faster than TPP. For a long time, we have not exploited this market well and if we consider the EU as an economic entity, this is the largest entity in the world. In 2013, Vietnam's exports to the EU were higher than the US, but Vietnamese enterprises have not paid attention to exploiting this market well.

Nghe An is attracting many large-scale investment projects.

Without TPP, we still have the EU market, the ASEM community market - this is the only market with a unified basis, we must take advantage of. In addition, there is the Vietnam - Korea Free Trade Agreement, the Vietnam - Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement... Although the standards are not as high as TPP, the tariff reduction is also fast, this is the potential we can exploit, of course, without TPP, it is also a disadvantage for Vietnam.

PCI competitiveness index must be raised

PV:Sir, so what solutions does Nghe An need to take advantage of this opportunity?

Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen:The government must improve the business environment and institutional reform - this is a provincial task. The PCI competitiveness index must be raised. There is no reason why Nghe An people are smart, hard-working, and the government serves the people, but cannot raise this index. Of course, this index is not only about the business environment, administrative procedures... but also related to the infrastructure index. To invest in infrastructure, there must be policies to mobilize social resources and invest well in infrastructure.

Currently, Nghe An's infrastructure connection is better than that of the North Central provinces. We have the Trans-Asia Highway. Vietnam and Laos have also agreed to build a highway from Thanh Thuy - Vientiane border gate connecting the Trans-Asia Highway... In addition, we have airports and seaports - which are the prerequisites for building a synchronous and complete infrastructure.

Compared to the three provinces of the North Central region, Nghe An has advantages, so it is important to mobilize social resources to upgrade, make it better and strongly reform administrative procedures and the business environment. That is the responsibility of the province, and businesses must improve their competitiveness and face challenges.

PV:Thank you very much!

Thu Huyen(Perform)