Hanoi (VNA) – Minister of Industry and TradeTran Tuan Anh on February 26 asked relevant departments and agencies tooptimise commitments in the European Union – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)which will take effect later this year.

He made the request during a working session in Hanoi todiscuss the government’s action programme and the plan to realise the EVFTA.

Luong Hoang Thai, Director of the Ministry of Industry andTrade (MoIT)’s Multilateral Trade Policy Department, said the EVFTA’sratification has been added into agenda of the National Assembly StandingCommittee’s meeting scheduled for April 13 – 17.

According to him, two laws, one decree and one decision of thegovernment are required to be revised in order to implement the deal.

In the near future, four new decrees will be issued and thetotal number of commitments will be raised to 12.

Minister Anh requested attention to completing legalprocedures between now and the NA’s upcoming session scheduled for May and June,as well as cooperation contents with EU agencies and building a bilateralmechanism for the supervision and implementation of the deal.

He stressed the importance of popularising the deal’srequirements and Vietnam’s commitments to centrally-run and local authorities,businesses and localities via personnel training in the field.

The minister asked for building a training course to improvethe capacity of authorities in ministries and localities.

About exports and market, he asked units concerned to holdmajor events in Europe to attract more businesses.

The minister also required specifying each export market inEurope, building a Vietnam – Europe trade data centre, adding sci-tech contentinto the action programme, and raising awareness of firms about tradeprotection./.