France Sincerely Hopes Vietnam Join WTO This Year, Ambassador

France sincerely wishes for Vietnam to able to participate in the World Trade Organization (WTO) as early as possible in 2006, said French Ambassador to Hanoi Jean-Francois Blarel in an inclusive interview with Vietnam Economic News recently.

 

“France has backed Vietnam’s accession to the WTO from the very beginning and continues to do it though it appears that some countries have blocked the negotiation process with Vietnam” Blarel noted.

 

He also valued that remaining partners should arrive at a balanced agreement like the one Vietnam reached with the EU.

 

Recently, two Vietnamese senior officials including Trade Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen and Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan repeatedly announced that the US WTO’s demands are too harsh for a developing economy such as Vietnam. The foreign country asked Vietnam to further open up its market for US goods, strictly implement Intellectual Property rights and to share the telecommunication market with the US.

 

Regarding Vietnam’s economic achievements, the ambassador said that in recent years Vietnam has gained a high growth rate of GDP and also attracted a huge amount of foreign investment capital. “Vietnam’s economy will certainly develop strongly in 2006”, Blarel stressed.

 

However, he urged that to achieve the target of sustainable development, Vietnam should find measures to restrain inflation (inflation rate of 2005 is 8.4 per cent, the figure of 2004 was 9.5 per cent). He also called on Vietnam to reform its financial system in the form of modernizing it.

 

Vietnam wrapped up WTO talk with the EU in October 2004 with the strong support of France.

 

France ranks as Vietnam’s second largest ODA donor with EUR400 million in the last two years.

 

Vietnam-France mutual trade reached EUR1.2 billion in 2004. The number for 2005 is estimated at EUR1.32 billion, including Vietnam’s earnings of EUR1 billion.
Vietnam Economic News