General Information

Vietnam has taken steps to modernise its infrastructure by agreeing to bring in foreign investors and thereby boost economic growth. The authorities thus want to develop a real industrial fabric and no longer depend on the transformation that brings only a modest added value to the modernisation of the country.

Vietnam had already become an attractive alternative for importers whose too small volumes are neglected by China, but since the US-China trade war, many Chinese and non-Chinese manufacturers have begun to move their factories there.

With the creation of the Asean Economic Community at the end of 2015, which removed the main tariff barriers on trade between the 11 countries of this zone of about 700 million inhabitants in 2025 and a middle class of nearly 450 million people by 2030 (according to Team France-Export), Vietnam becomes even more attractive as a production base.

The European Union and Vietnam finally signed the FTA on 30 June 2019 after negotiations on a free trade agreement that started in 2012, was ratified on 8 June 2020 and entered into force on 1 August 2020. It covers market access, tariffs (eventually 99% tariff elimination), non-tariff barriers, trade facilitation, services liberalisation, procurement, investment protection, sustainable development and transparency.

Vietnam is also a member of APEC, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum created in 1989 to capitalise on the growing interdependence of the Asia-Pacific region.

APEC's 21 members aim to increase the prosperity of the people of the region by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and accelerating regional economic integration.