Friday, March 17 2017 17:11

ArmInfo. The first meeting of the Armenian-Vietnamese intergovernmental commission for economic, scientific and technical cooperation was held in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, the press service of the Armenian Ministry of Economic Development and Investment reported.

The co-chairs of the intergovernmental commission of the Armenian side are Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Investments Hovhannes Azizyan, and Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Kuok Wuong. During the meeting, the sides discussed issues of trade, economic, agricultural cooperation, as well as prospects in the field of transport, culture and tourism. The sides also discussed other issues of mutual interest, as well as outlined ways for future cooperation.

During the private conversation of Azizyan and his Vietnamese colleague, the sides discussed the prospects of export of the Armenian production, in particular, alcohol export. The sides spoke on free trade agreement between EEU and Vietnam.

To note, the Agreement on the Free Trade Area (FTA) between the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) came into force on October 5, 2016, after the document was ratified by the national parliaments of all countries participating in this pact. As a result of the launch of this mechanism, Vietnam gets privileged access to the capacious and promising common market of five countries as Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with an aggregate gross domestic product of about $ 2.2 trillion and nearly 183 million consumers. The Eurasian Five, in its turn, will be able to promote its products in Vietnam, where more than 90 million people live, on a preferential basis. The practical implementation of the free trade regime between Vietnam and the EEU will allow the sides not only to successfully trade in traditional commodity groups, but also opens up huge opportunities for investment cooperation. In addition, the FTA Agreement provides protection of rights to intellectual property objects, determines areas of cooperation in the electronic commerce and government procurement sectors, establishes unified principles for the protection of competition, unifies customs formalities. Tariff liberalization of trade in goods between the EEU member states and Vietnam assumes, on a reciprocal basis, a reduction or "zeroing" of about 90% of the import customs duties rates - either immediately after the entry of the FTA into force (59%) or through transitional periods (30%) - for the majority of commodity items (total - about 10 thousand items).