EVFTA: stepping up Vietnam-EU trade and investment
(QNO) - EVFTA (The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement) is the first FTA that has been signed by EU and a developing country in the Asia-Pacific region. It is a comprehensive, hi-quality agreement with a deep and broad commitment.
![Chu Lai Open Economic Zone, Quang Nam province, Vietnam](https://bqn.1cdn.vn/2021/07/14/images.baoquangnam.vn-storage-newsportal-2021-7-14-114511-_20201023-dji_0047.jpg)
The EVFTA contributes to the promotion of trade and investment between Vietnam and EU, bringing great benefits to the economy, people and businesses of each party, creating the impulse to the comprehensive and cooperative partnership between Vietnam and EU.
The EVFTA came into effect in August 2020, paving the way for tariff reductions on nearly 100% of goods between Vietnam and EU. It is expected to be a huge boost to Vietnam's exports, particularly textiles and garments, agricultural and aquatic products, wooden products, footwear with competitive advantages.
EU is now the leading trading partner and the second largest export market of Vietnam (just after the US).
From 2000 to 2020, the trade turnover between Vietnam and EU increased by more than 12 times, from 4.1 billion USD in 2000 to nearly 50 billion USD in 2020. Vietnam's exports to EU increased by nearly 13 times (from 2.8 billion USD to 35.1 billion USD).
In 2020, Vietnam was still a surplus exporter to the EU market with a trade surplus of more than 29.307 billion USD.
In order to concretise the provincial EVFTA Implementation Plan, the Quang Nam People's Committee requested the Management Board of Chu Lai Open Economic Zone (OEZ) to coordinate with provincial departments and agencies to build the seaport and transport infrastructure, improve local businesses’ capacity and service quality through attracting domestic and foreign investment, develop local logistics services, apply information technology in management, operation, production and logistics, call for and focus on environmentally-friendly projects in Chu Lai OEZ in particular and Quang Nam province in general in the period of 2021-2025.