In the morning of April 16th 2007, three months after Vietnam became a full member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the IDEAS Center (Switzerland) and the Friedrich Ebert Institute (Federal Republic of Germany) held the International Conference on Opportunities and Challenges of Vietnam in Geneva.

Ambassador Ngo Quang Xuan reviewed Vietnam’s multi-sided improvements to admirably fulfill Vietnamese delegates’ commitments and reports. After listening to his speaking, international delegates recognized public sanguineness and excite to this event of Vietnam’s WTO accession.

However, Doctor Wiemann, Vice Director of Development Research Institute (Germany), who spent three months in Vietnam carrying out field research on this country’s industrial policies when making preparation for WTO accession, stressed that Vietnam would have more opportunities with full membership of WTO but new difficulties would arise immediately. Members of WTO achieve more equality than non-members but WTO has not definitely established the equality between the rich and poor countries. Vietnam should know thoroughly the essence of sophisticated protection measures and forms that developed industrial countries are imposing to restrict the ability of accessing market of Vietnam’s goods and services. Instead of attempting to increase exports of raw products with low added value, Vietnam should design new investment schemes focusing on raising added value and qualities of exports.

“Instead of maintaining former protection policy on domestic import-replacing industries, such as putting a heavy tax on cars, Vietnam should operate policies to quickly form association between domestic enterprises and foreign investment companies in a global “chain of values” or “chain of suppliers”; therefore, Vietnam’s enterprises can promptly adopt modern technology and management as well as access market more directly. Vietnam’s own rights for pursuing industrial policies must be applied cleverly in order to promote strongly Vietnam’s competitiveness in comply with WTO principles,” Doctor Wiemann said.

Delegates paid special attention to discussion of WTO’s impacts on people prone to injury such as temporary unemployed because enterprises go bankrupt in more fierce business environment, unwell-educated ones, farmers, and etc. Doctor Christophe Gironde (Development Institute, Geneva University), who has researched agriculture and rural areas in The Red River Delta for 15 years, said governments in some localities paid too much attention to construction of industrial zones instead of to farmers’ cultivation requirements such as irrigation for winter crops, new rice varieties, credits for applying technical breakthroughs, etc. Nowadays, as a full member of WTO, Vietnamese farmers’ top priority is to access domestic and international market, to sell products satisfying market demands and being able to compete. Governments can not stop at vague encouragement and calling-upon policies. He also noted that his survey in Hung Yen showed capital of the Credit Funds was not used with their right borrowers and purposes: instead of being financed poor farmers to cultivate, capital was lent to officials’ non-poor relatives and acquaintances and people who export labor to Korea.

Economists also believed that comprehensive solutions and new accesses for the newly-appearing urban poor, who are farmers losing their rice-fields because of urbanization and are unemployed rural youth going to cities, instead of former poverty reduction policies on rural areas.

Delegates said goodbye and made an appointment to see each other again to continue discussing on newly-arising problems after Vietnam fulfills its commitments for periods of time. They expect Vietnam’s new improvements and reforms. WTO is not waiting for anybody so Vietnam can not help acting promptly, having further vision, understanding, pushing through reforms, improving the ability of harmonizing and coordinating sectors and levels in order to take this new advantage for the country.