India vietnam defense cooperation

Vietnam expects to have 3 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and 3 million doses of Pfizer vaccine from now to September.

Tan Chuan-Jin, Speaker of Parliament of Singapore – the host country of the event, said that the 12th AIPA Caucus discussed the implementation of resolutions of the 41st AIPA General Assembly, including the Resolution on “the role of parliaments in promoting ASEAN cohesiveness and economic recovery post-COVID-19” , the Resolution on “Advancing AIPA’s role in supporting ASEAN socio-cultural community in responding to COVID-19”, and the Resolution on “the role of women parliamentarians in securing jobs and income for women workers”.

The Vietnamese delegation said amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, ASEAN should pay more attention to restoring supply chains and promoting trade connectivity in parallel with enhancing close cooperation to prevent the spread of the disease, especially cross-border transmission, accelerating COVID-19 vaccine purchase and vaccination, as well as cooperation in vaccine research and development.

The delegation proposed six specific recommendations to AIPA member parliaments, related to many crucial issues such as completing legal framework to facilitate trade and investment activities, ensuring uninterrupted circulation of goods and supply chains in the region.

Vietnamese participants also underlined the need to strengthen parliamentary supervision over the implementation of commitments on investment and trade within regional and international frameworks, establish new methods in promoting bilateral trade ties, maintain commitments to opening market in order to enhance the resilience and sustainability of regional supply chains, speed up the application of digital technology in production and business activities and goods consumption through e-commerce platforms.

Representatives from AIPA member countries shared experience in controlling the pandemic and promoting economic recovery amidst the health crisis.

They demonstrated willingness to cooperate for economic growth recovery and green economic development, and realise sustainable development goals after the pandemic, for stability and prosperity of the ASEAN Community, and for the sake of regional people.

The AIPA Caucus was officially established at the 28th AIPA General Assembly in 2007 in Malaysia.

Since the first AIPA Caucus in Malaysia in April, 2009, the meeting has been held annually in ASEAN countries (except 2018). The National Assembly of Vietnam has been an active member of AIPA Caucus. The country successfully organized the fifth AIPA Caucus in 2013, which focused on green growth and poverty reduction for sustainable development in ASEAN.

Source: VNA

Vietnam is rolling out policies to improve FDI mobilisation

After the meeting with the task force for foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction in late-May, last week, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, head of the task force, urged all ministries and agencies to provide more general advice and policies to lure in more investors and strengthen investment promotion activities.

Of these, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) is the focal agency in the building of Vietnam’s FDI mobilisation strategy by 2030 to be submitted to the prime minister this month. The ministry will also be forwarded all reports and recommendations related to enterprises’ difficulties and challenges sent to relevant authorities.

Based on initial feedback, tax and related issues remain a headache for investors. The deputy PM asked the Ministry of Finance to provide measures as soon as possible to remove challenges related to withholding tax (especially foreign contractor withholding tax), the conflicts of legal provisions on taxes as well as export, and import tariffs.

Meanwhile, DPM Minh asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade and relevant ministries to consider off-shore wind power projects and consider adding a new form of energy (hydrogen) to the master plan.

The Ministry of Labours, Invalids, and Social Affairs will have to make more efforts to urgently resolve all issues related to granting and extending work permits for experts working for foreign-invested enterprises; as well as accelerate the training of workers to meet the needs of large corporations for skilled, technical, and management workers in line with Industry 4.0 trends.

The efforts of the task force and the local governments have proven effective so far. A few weeks ago, Binh Duong People’s Committee handed over investment certificates to five foreign-invested companies valued at $1 billion in the midst of the fourth COVID-19 outbreak in Vietnam.

Of these, Polytex Far Eastern Vietnam (from Taiwan) had the largest capitalisation with a total investment of $600 million, followed by Cheng Loong (also from Taiwan) pouring an additional $100 million into its $1 billion local project, and Singapore’s New Motion Industrial Co., Ltd. registered a new $184 million project. This has pulled Binh Duong to the fourth position among 56 cities and provinces receiving FDI in the first five months of 2021, with the total investment of $1.1 billion.

Meanwhile, the task force has also boosted cooperation with numerous new billion-dollar projects in the first months, clinching deals like the LNG power plant in Long An and O Mon II thermal power plant in Can Tho, while encouraging others to expand.

Regent Garment Factory Ltd., a subsidiary of Crystal International Group Ltd., was approved in May to build another factory in Hai Duong with the value of $35 million. This is the fourth factory of the company which has so far registered the total investment of around $227 million in the country.

The total investment in the first five months saw a slight increase on-year to nearly $14 billion. Moreover, the average scale of newly- and additionally-registered projects has risen significantly since last year, from $2.2 million to $14.4 million, and from $7.9 million to $11.3 million per project this year.