Dong Nai province ends 2015 with many achievements and starts 2016 with also many new opportunities and challenges, starting with the official foundation of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) on the last day ò 2015 - December 31st.
Mr. Ding Quoc Thai – Chairman of Provincial People’s Council (right) welcoming Mr. Panyarak Poolthup – Thailand Ambassador Extraordinary Plenipotentiary
Mr. Dinh Quoc Thai said, with over 10 thousand all size enterprises, Dong Nai province will get the deepest influence in the upcoming integration “game”, there will be many opportunities and challenges, and above all, enterprises shall get ready for the integration.
There were 2 remarkable events in 2015: Completing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiation and the foundation of the ASEAN Community (AC). As a leader of a province with a lot of enterprises, what do you think about these events?
- I am really excited and of course a little worried because most of the industries which are influenced by the TPP and the AC are the strengths of Dong Nai province, such as: footwear, textile, agricultural produce, livestock… However, everything is quite distinct now since the TPP has publicly shown which industries to be influenced, the tax cut schedule and the remaining time until the “real game is on”, now everyone knows it, so I think everything is good. Footwear and textile sectors get the benefit right away but livestock shall be badly effected but not right away, we will have nearly 10 years to prepare sinse the TPP to be ratified in 2016. It is a pretty long time for the livestock sector to improve its competitiveness.
As leader of a province with a lot of enterprises, we indeed concern about the process of Vietnam in participating the Free Trade Association (FTA). There will be many comments, both positive and negative, but in my opinion, no matter which side of the integration we are participating, the enterprises’ self-effort is the core factor.
How do you believe in Dong Nai enterprises’ self-effort before these opportunities, limitations and challenges from the integration?
- I cannot ensure the self-effort of all the provincial enterprises is all steady, but after having conversations and contacts with hundreds of Foreign Direct Invested, Domestic Direct Invested (FDI, DDI) and private provincial enterprises, I do believe in the self-effort of many of them. In the other hand, before participating in any FTA, they studied and considered the overall advantage and deeply analyzed all the industries: any advantages for textile, disadvantages for footwear? Considering the pros and con and choose the most suitable FTA. Therefore, I believe there will be more of opportunities, and gain and loss eventually depend on how carefully each enterprise prepares. The more carefully they prepare, the more they gain.
I also think competition is essential for the enterprises to develop and stand still, and the most important is to be ready for it.
Dong Nai made the impression to be the first province to have Long Khanh town and Xuan Loc district legalized as new rural areas. Thong Nhat and the other districts will soon be next. However, many people questioning what is after being a new rural area, what to do to continue improving rural life.
- Ultimately, the highest target of being a new rural area is to improve the living quality for the people there. If we do not reach the target, all the achievements are meaningless. Dong Nai province took many effort in building new rural areas, we event took one step ahead with the decision no. 26 about the Agriculture, the Farmer and the Rural before the New Rural Area Movement was launched by the Government, this is because provincial leaders always want people in rural areas to have better life.
And what is after being a new rural area. It will be specified in the advance new rural area criteria, but it will not be outside the target of improving people’s living standard and income. I think focusing on hi-tech agriculture to improve productivity and competitiveness of our produces is the right move. At the present, technologies from Europe, Japan, Israel… is approaching Dong Nai farmer via the the co-op, contract programs. I really want in the future, with what we are building up today, our agriculture can have a stable position in our home market and can be exported to large markets.
Thank you very much!
Xuan Phu – Kim Ngan
