Vietnam and Japan will shortly launch formal negotiation on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to speedily boost economic cooperation between the two economies, agreed Prime Minister Phan Van Khai of Vietnam and his counterpart Koizumi.
The two government leaders made the announcement yesterday in the sidelines of Kuala Lumpur’s multilateral summit of the East Asian region.
They agreed with the plan to set up a joint study group next month and start full-fledged FTA talks as early as the coming summer.
They also said that the expected agreement, the first FTA for Vietnam, might cover areas that are not included in the most powerful Asian economy’s talks with other ASEAN member, such as intellectual property protection as well as Hanoi's tariffs on industrial goods, and anticipates that its farm and fisheries tariffs will also be addressed in the negotiations.
Besides, Khai and Koizumi witnessed the signing of a pact to officially conclude negotiation on Vietnam’s bid to join World Trade Organization (WTO).
In a related movement, General Secretary of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)-cum-Head of Vietnam-Japan Senator Friendly Union met with Vietnamese Party Chief Nong Duc Manh. The two parties’ heads also pledged to work closely in the coming period.
Vietnam and Japan established diplomatic ties on September 21, 1973. They signed an agreement on investment promotion and protection last November and since 1999 have been each country's most favored-nation.
Vietnam licensed 59 new Japanese investment projects with combined pledged investment capital of $220.4 million in the first nine months of this year, raising the total number of Japanese investment projects in the country to 556 worth US$5.98 billion.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Vietnam’s export turnover to Japan in 2004 reached about $3.79 billion, an increase of 16.6 per cent over 2003 and import turnover from the latter hit about $3.12 billion.
It is expected that Vietnam’s export turnover to Japan will end this year at $4.5 billion, representing about 14.5 per cent cent of total export turnover of the whole country and going up more than 18 per cent compared to 2004.
The People, Young People
Vietnamese
