Orientation Workshop: Viet Nam National Trade Repository

The MOIT and the British Embassy in Viet Nam on 3 december 2021 conducted an orientation workshop to seek comments from the other Government Ministries and private sector on the Viet Nam National Trade Repository (VNTR). It is expected to be completed and go live in March 2022. The VNTR will be linked to and become an integral part of the ASEAN Trade Repository (ATR) https://atr.asean.org/.  The VNTR will be a free-to-access online information portal, that will provide all the latest trade information in both English and Vietnamese.

Speaking at today’s event, the representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of (MOIT) emphasized that the establishment of the Viet Nam National Trade Repository (VNTR) is to fulfill Viet Nam’s commitment within ASEAN to improve the transparency of trade policies and regulations, facilitate regional trade, and support business community in gaining easier access to information about Viet Nam’s commitments on trade in goods, trade in services and investment under ASEAN cooperation framework, thereby helping businesses be more proactive in business strategy development and enhancing their competitiveness during the course of Viet Nam’s building ASEAN Economic Community with other member countries”.

The development of VNTR is funded by the UK Government. Mr. Marcus Winsley, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy in Viet Nam said: “Vietnamese businesses are having greater opportunities to take advantage of preferences from UKVFTA and other thirteen effective FTAs while Viet Nam is opening up its post-covid economy. The portal will provide more consistent, transparent, and accessible information on both tariff and non-tariff measures that are relevant to traders, which help expeditee trade flows with Viet Nam. With VNTR, the UK also sets a high value on promoting an inclusive enabling environment for businesses by targeting our support on MSMEs and marginalised businesses. It will help reduce unnecessary costs and increase their level of compliance with legislation and regulation.”

The VNTR will contain information on Viet Nam’s various commitments on tariffs, rules of origin, non-tariff measures (which is being provided by #UNCTAD) etc., under ATIGA as well as other free trade agreements (FTAs) between ASEAN and its dialogue partners. In doing so, the VNTR will support both domestic and foreign enterprises in complying with domestic regulations and international commitments on trade relating to Viet Nam.