The National Assembly passed Resolutions approving EVFTA and EVIPA

On the morning of 8^th June, the National Assembly voted to approve the Resolution ratifying the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).

Earlier, on May 20, 2020, the National Assembly discussed online the ratification of these two Agreements. Most of the opinions of the National Assembly deputies strongly agreed with the State President's Proposal, the Government's Explanatory Report and the Verification Report of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee, endorsing the ratification of EVFTA and EVIPA at the 9th session of the 14th National Assembly.

The National Assembly deputies highly appreciated the efforts of the Government and related ministries and agencies in the process of negotiating and signing the Agreement. The ratification of the Agreements will bring opportunities to attract foreign investment, promote socio-economic development, especially economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was noted that in recent years, Vietnam has attracted about 32,000 foreign investment projects with a total registered capital of more than 370 billion USD, but there are only about 2,500 projects invested by European agencies with registered capital of 27.5 billion USD. The ratification of the Agreement will help attract investment, access to modern industry, new technology and clean technology from European countries.

At the same time, the National Assembly deputies also highlighted the difficulties and challenges and set out requirements for institutional reform, infrastructure upgrades, improvement of competitiveness and quality of human resources. It is also necessary to pay attention to the dissemination and communication activities to support businesses to take advantage of the Agreements’ advantages. The Standing Committee of the National Assembly respectfully welcomed all the enthusiastic and very appropriate recommendations of the National Assembly deputies and requested the Government and the Prime Minister to collect comments and supplement the implementation plan of the Agreements.

The National Assembly deputies agree that the contents of the Agreement is not contrary to the Constitution and basically consistent with the Vietnamese legal system, agree to approve the ratification of the National Assembly's Resolution recognizing and enforcing decisions of the Dispute Settlement Agencies under the EVIPA.