Vietnam needs to review its bidding law against new EVFTA commitments on government procurement for appropriate amendment.
The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the Embassy of the United Kingdom and the Embassy of North Ireland on January 27 hosted a workshop themed “Vietnam legal framework against European Union - Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) commitments on Government Procurement”, to collect opinions of enterprises and experts for VCCI’s draft review results.
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| Director of VCCI’s WTO and Integration Center Nguyen Thi Thu Trang addresses the workshop__Photo: VLLF |
EVFTA, one of
Vietnam’s two largest new-generation free trade agreements, is expected to largely affect legal and economic institutions of the country in the coming time.
Up to date,
Vietnam has not made any international commitments in terms of government procurement, thus needs to review its bidding law against new EVFTA commitments on government procurement for appropriate amendment, according to Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, Director of VCCI’s WTO and
Integration Center.
According to the Review, the amended 2013 Bidding Law has introduced several commitment obligations on government procurement, showing the country’s moves to conform with international practices on bidding. In principle, Vietnam will not have to revise current legal documents regarding these obligations upon implementation of EVFTA.
However, the Review points to three groups of EVFTA commitments which are different from Vietnam law. The first group involves EVFTA specific obligations as scope of regulation or exceptional cases while the second relates to obligations on transparency and competition. The last group includes obligations related to the bidding system, including conditions for each form of bidding and technical standards on bidding.
Trang suggested introducing a decree to legally transplant EVFTA particular commitments related to the bidding system or transparency and competition which cannot be changed immediately. In addition, Vietnam should revise the general bidding law applicable to commitments on transparency and competition, which can benefit the whole bidding system and bidders.
Apart from government procurement, VCCI will also review the legal system against EVFTA commitments regarding investment, intellectual property, trade facilitation and transparency.- (VLLF)
