Vietnam

VIETNAM Snapshot:

• Vietnam has one of the fastest growing economies in Asia that offers highly favourable market entry conditions. The baseline calculations foresee GDP growth of 7.5% for 2022 and 6.7% for 2023. However, global economic issues such as inflation on export markets and disruption of the supply chains and energy markets might impact the views. (World Bank, 2022)
• Vietnam is part of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, CPTPP (TPP11), and signed the Free Trade agreement with the EU, that can further boost the country's export-oriented economy.
• The EU is one of the largest investors in Vietnam, after the East Asian economic powers (Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China, Hong Kong) with the total value of over two thousand projects amounts to almost US$ 25 billion.
• Vietnam is the largest trade partner of Poland among the ASEAN countries with trade turnover of US$ 3.73 billion in 2020 (a 7.1% increase compared to 2019).
• The country intends to move forward to achieving net-zero emission. As there is no room left for the growth of hydro-power and Vietnam doesn't want the gas-fired electricity sector to develop too intensively, the country will further boost the expansion of the renewables, including solar, wind and wave energies, to balance and sustain all power resources. The main paths Vietnam intends to explore in the field of energy will include modernising the transmission network, developing smart grids and increasing the use of energy storage systems.
• In 2022 the National Climate Change Strategy was adopted that supports the transformation to net-zero emission by 2050 while advancing green and resilient economy, safe water and housing provision and nature conservation.

Why Vietnam?

• The 'EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement' that was signed on 1 August 2020 provide new grounds of cooperation for EU companies. Under the terms of this agreement, numerous customs and bureaucratic restrictions hindering European companies from doing business in Vietnam have been lifted and importantly Vietnam opened its market for services and public procurement. In the next 15 years Vietnam will adjust public procurement standards in line with countries in the Government Procurement Agreement.
• Under the agreement with the EU, public procurement in Vietnam will be linked to entities such as all Vietnamese central ministries, public bodies in Ha Noi and Ho Shi Minh City (generating half of the procurement from regional authorities), the national electricity operator (EVN), Vietnamese railways, public hospitals controlled by the Ministry of Health (34 units), universities and research units (2 of each type) and almost all construction services including procurement from the Ministry of Transport.
• Vietnam offers good potentials in public procurement as the ratio of public investment to GDP is one of the highest. In 2018 this reached 35.7% (approx. $26, 45 billion) of the total investment. In addition to funding coming directly from the state budget, Vietnam is a beneficiary of the Official Development Assistance (ODA) programmes run by, among others, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or the World Bank Group (WBG). The main investment directions include energy, environment, education, telecommunications, transport, civil aviation and financial services.
• Vietnam has a comprehensive IP legislation that covers most aspects of IP protection in accordance with international standards required by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) and its relevant implementing regulations. The country is also member to several international conventions regulating IP matters.