A port in Vietnam (Photo: VNA)
Vietnam’s signatory FTAs, especially recent agreements will promote trade breakthroughs and generate major trade surplus for 2022 and build momentum for 2022-23 in the process.
Despite Vietnam’s challenges, exports recovered well in the first four months of 2022 to hit 122.4 billion USD, a year-on-year surge of 16.4 percent.
The increase was attributed to business resilience and flexibility taking advantage of FTA parameters, notably the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Regional Cooperation Economic Partnership (RCEP) which took effect at the start of 2022.
Nguyen Chanh Phuong, Vice Chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA), said new generation FTAs enhanced trade in Vietnam’s wood processing sector, pushing exports when compared to rival countries that are outside of the agreements.
A survey by the Centre for Industrial Studies (CSIL) of Italy forecast the global wood products market will record growth of 4 percent in 2022.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Ha, a tuna market expert of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said that Vietnam earned more than 259 million USD from tuna exports in the first quarter of 2022. The growth meets a five-year high, surging 72 percent from the same period last year. This equates to a 1.6-fold increase over the same period in 2019 before COVID-19 broke out.
At a tuna processing facility (Photo: VNA)
Of note, the EVFTA contributed to bringing tuna exports to European nations to the tune of nearly 38 million USD, up 33 percent year on year.
At present, intra-country logistics posed a challenge for Vietnamese businesses, causing some businesses to miss opportunity within the FTAs.
Vietnam needs to fine-tune policies and regulations on logistics services and build fleets of major vessels and modern infrastructure to meet import-export requirements.
Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director of the Agency for Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, confirmed that firms must study how the trade deals benefit them to adjust procedures and material supply. This will allow them to meet certificate of origin criteria and benefit from preferential tariffs under the FTAs.
Enterprises have received guidance from experts and the government on tariff and non-tariff restrictions so as to better navigate these difficult waters.
Chess GM Le Quang Liem takes up challenge at Prague Masters
Chess Grand Master Le Quang Lien of Vietnam will travel to Prague of the Czech Republic in June for the Prague International Chess Festival 2022, reported the Voice of Vietnam.
GM Le Quang Liem wins a gold medal in team's blitz chess at the recent 31st SEA Games.
He has been selected to play in the Masters tournament – the most competitive of the festival, with the participation of 10 players from June 7 to June 18.
Notably, he will take on Nguyen Thai Dai Van, a Czech of Vietnamese origin who was the 2013 European Youth bronze medalist and winner of the 2017 First Saturday Grandmaster tournament. Dai Van is currently the youngest Czech Grandmaster.
Liem’s other opponents will be Vidit Gujrathi (India), Pentala Harikrishna (India), Sam Shankland (USA), Francisco Vallejo (Spain), David Anton (Spain), Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran), Salem Saleh (UAE), and David Narava (Czech Republic).
The contenders will play in a round-robin format to find the winner.
The Prague International Chess Festival was established in 2017 but the first iteration of the festival took place in March 2019.
The main purpose of the festival is to give top Czech players, national team pretenders and aspiring juniors a chance to face the world's absolute top players on home soil.
Organisers hope the festival and its format will encourage players' fighting spirit, incite their will to win, strengthen self-confidence and motivate further personal chess growth in a healthy way.
Short animated Vietnamese film competes at Cannes Film Festival
“Giac Mo Goi Cuon”, known as “Spring Roll Dream” in English, a short animated film by a young Vietnamese director has been nominated in the La Cinef, a category at the Cannes Film Festival which honours works by students from global film schools, reported the Voice of Vietnam.
A scene in 'Giac Mo Goi Cuon' animated film
The nine-minute animated piece is a graduation project created by Mai Vu, a student of the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in England. It was one of 16 outstanding works to be selected from a total of 1,528 submissions.
The best three short films shown in the La Cinef category will receive awards. The Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to run until May 28.
The stop-motion short tells the story of a Vietnamese family residing in the United States. The main character - a single mother named Linh – tries to build a stable life for her son Alan, although the balance is disrupted when her father Sang visits from Vietnam.
During a meal, he insists on making Vietnamese spring rolls for his grandson, but Linh prefers to eat American cuisine such as mac and cheese instead. From here, conflicts arose between Sang and Linh. At this point, Linh is confronted with the past and culture she left behind and the question of where it belongs in her family's new life.
The character of Sang was inspired by a lonely old father who wants to connect with his children and grandchildren, but only knows how to express his love by cooking for them.
NFTS provided a total of £9,000, equal to US$11,300, for the film, and this fund was mainly used to buy materials, pay for studio expenses, voiceovers, and collaborators.
Mai Vy was originally born in Ho Chi Minh City and has been working in animation since 2011. Between 2012 and 2015 she directed more than 70 episodes of “Xin Chao But Chi”, also known as “Hello Pencil”, the first stop motion animated series produced in Vietnam. In 2020, she went to the UK to study animation at the NFTS before graduating in March this year.
Vietnamese cuisines favoured by ASEAN friends in Malaysia
Vietnam’s special cultural identities, landscape and cuisines were introduced to friends in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at an event in Malaysia on May 27.
Vietnam's pho bo (beef noodle soup) (Photo: VNA)
The event took place within a meeting of wives of officials and female staff of the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ASEAN Ladies Circle (ALC) in the country, aiming to contributing to enhancing the friendship and solidarity within the bloc.
Khuat Thi Hong Hanh, spouse of Vietnamese Ambassador Tran Viet Thai and head of the ALC Vietnam, spoke highly of solidarity and mutual support of the ALC amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ALC Vietnam brought to the event Vietnamese dishes such as pho bo (beef noodle soup) and nem (spring rolls), which received warm response and compliments from regional friends.
Short films featuring the history, culture and tourist destinations in Vietnam were also screened on this occasion./.