On the occasion the third meeting of APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) for 2012 is organised in Ho Chi Minh City from July 16 to 19, 2012, Vietnam Business Forum has an interview with Mr Hoang Van Dung, Standing Vice President of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and Chairman of ABAC Vietnam, on this event. Quynh Chi reports.
Could you brief main contents of the third ABAC meeting and what recommendations will ABAC Vietnam put forth this time?
The third ABAC meeting will make an official report and its recommendations to be sent to APEC leaders and dialogue contents of APEC leaders at the APEC CEO Summit. Major contents of the meeting remain regional economic integration, trade and investment liberalisation, the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) negotiation promotion, and the roadmap towards a free trade area in Asia Pacific.
Specific contents include: Promoting trade and investment liberation; initiating a new services agenda; enhancing supply chain connectivity; ensuring food security; addressing energy security; promoting technology transfer and cutting-edge technology investment; identifying policies to promote longevity and growth of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs); promoting the stability of financial systems; enhancing financing, longevity and economic inclusion of SMMEs.
In addition to ABAC Vietnam’s attendance to the meeting, the Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality (STAMEQ) will also be invited to discuss standard issues in regional supply chains.
A side event called APEC Investment Conference will introduce investment environment and opportunities in the Latin American economies and the APEC Women’s Forum for Vietnam.
How many delegates are expected to attend this meeting? Who will present Vietnam?
Thus far, 166 delegates from APEC economies have registered to attend the conference. ABAC Vietnam’s delegates and entrepreneurs will attend the APEC Investment Conference and APEC Women’s Entrepreneur Forum expected to bring together 100 - 120 participants. Some 300 delegates will attend the main meeting and side events.
The hosting of the third ABAC meeting and side events will help uplift the prestige of Vietnam in the region and will also provide a good opportunity to popularise the image of Vietnamese enterprises and their products to APEC's businesspeople, access leading corporations and investors, and expand opportunities of cooperation with regional partners.
ABAC Vietnam plans to invite the State President to deliver the opening speech, leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to attend and represent the progress of Vietnam’s TPP entry negotiations, leaders of the Ministry of Planning and Investment to deliver the opening remark to the Vietnam Investment and Environment Conference, and leaders of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Planning and Investment to represent investment opportunities in the city. The Vietnam Women’s Business Council will join ABAC female entrepreneurs to organise the APEC Women’s Entrepreneur Forum, meet Vietnamese businesses, and visit some woman-led production facilities in Ho Chi Minh City.
Accessing capital sources is very hard for Vietnamese SMEs. What does ABAC Vietnam propose to support SMEs in this regard?
APEC SMEs also face difficulties like Vietnamese enterprises, particularly access to capital. Apart from borrowing from banks, we also use investment capital of external partners. When SMEs have good projects, they may be able to receive investment capital from APEC SMEs.
Lately, I met with the JICA Chief Representative, Japan. They suggested coordination to select potential SMEs to cooperate with Japanese SMEs to seek funding from the Japanese Government. The loan bearing annualised interest rate of 3 percent has a maturity of up to 10 years. The Japanese side has deployed this programme through some Vietnamese banks. However, this is somewhere unclear because they can lend banks at low interest to sub-lend SMEs. And, this defeats their purpose. At this meeting, we will build a mechanism for APEC SMEs to connect Vietnamese enterprises to use Government funds effectively.
The third ABAC Meeting highlights trade and investment liberalisation and SME support. However, SMEs find it hard to compete with mega-enterprises because of their economic disparities. What solutions are needed to enhance the level of SMEs in less developed countries?
Member countries met and suggested the formation of a free trade area worldwide. Vietnam entered the WTO in 2007 but contradictory interests of big countries and small countries hampered progress to agreement.
APEC advocates the formation of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) by 2020. To enable 21 members to reach that goal, APEC has built TPP Agreement. Currently, some large countries have not joined TPP, including Russia and China. TPP is a prerequisite to reach a free trade area. When it participates in TPP, Vietnam will be able to make better use of opportunities generated by international and regional restructuring process and enlist international cooperation for economic development, export promotion and trade deficit curbing. Vietnam entered into TPP before China and other regional countries like Thailand and Indonesia, it will have favourable conditions set foot on participating countries before them.
If Vietnam does not join, a lot of technical barriers will be raised against its exports like shrimp and basa antidumping suits. If it joins, its businesses will enjoy more favourable conditions from other members. Hopefully, the sooner this agreement will take effect, the sooner Vietnamese businesses enjoy benefits.
At ABAC meetings, we often make recommendations related to SMEs like mechanisms for capital, finance, e-commerce and human resources training which the Government must invest for SMEs to survive and develop. Then, they pay taxes and create jobs and the Government is then not burdened with unemployment, etc.
ABAC’s main activities and priorities in 2012:
The Russian Federation assumes the ABAC chairmanship in 2012 and put forth the theme Aspirations to Reality for 2012. To carry forward the work program for 2012, ABAC has established the following working groups with their respective focus areas:
(1) Regional Economic Integration Working Group focuses o regional economic integration, trade and investment liberalisation
(2) Sustainable Development Working Group focuses on ensuring food security, promoting technology transfer and cutting-edge technology investment, and addressing energy security
(3) Infrastructure Development Working Group focuses improving transportation and supply chains, promoting green development, water security and eco cities, and strengthening public-private partnership development
(4) Finance & Economics Working Group gives priority to promoting the stability of financial systems, monitoring and assessing the regional implications of G20 developments, and enhancing financing, longevity and economic inclusion of SMMEs
(5) SMME & Entrepreneurship Working Group focuses encouraging people growth: human resources development in a fast changing world, developing policies to promote creation of new businesses, and identifying policies to promote longevity and growth of SMMEs
(6) Action Plan & Advocacy Working Group will keep an eye on tracking progress and assessing the effectiveness of ABAC recommendations, developing action and advocacy plan for ABAC 2012 key priorities, and identifying and enhancing linkages with APEC
ABAC events in 2012 include: First ABAC Meeting from February 21-24, 2012 in Hong Kong; Second ABAC Meeting from May 21-24, 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Third ABAC Meeting from July 16-19, 2012 in Ho Chi Minh City; and Fourth ABAC Meeting from September 4 -7, 2012 in Vladivostok, Russia.
Vietnamese
