REPORT AND EVALUATION OF THE WORKSHOP

Transcription

1 REPORT AND EVALUATION OF THE WORKSHOP Vietnam s WTO Accession: Remaining Policy and Legal Issues December 19-20, 2005, Hochiminh City, Vietnam Organized by the WBI in cooperation with the VASS and the Budgetary and Economic Committee of the National Assembly Date : December 19-20, 2005 Venue: The Office of National Assembly Guest-house, 194 Hoang Van Thu St., Phu Nhuan District, Hochiminh City Background Vietnam is strongly committed to trade integration and WTO accession for achieving its economic growth and poverty reduction objectives. Over the past few years, the Government of Vietnam has made tremendous efforts in conducting legal reforms and redrafting its laws and regulations to make them consistent with WTO legal requirements. A Legal Action Plan has been adopted and updated from time to time. The National Assembly (NA) has already passed several WTO-consistent laws. During the current NA session, started on October 18, 14 Laws and one Resolution are being discussed and possibly adopted including the Law on Intellectual Property, the Law on Electronic Transactions, the (uniform) Enterprise Law, the (common) Investment Law, the amended Law on Value Added Tax, the amended Law on Special Consumption Tax, and others. At the request of the Government, the World Bank Group, along with other donors, has provided a Technical Assistance program for Vietnam's legal reform, and delivered several reports and two workshops to the NA on the need for legal reform (in September 2004 and April 2005). As a continuation of the above effort, WBI, in collaboration with the Office of the National Assembly and Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences (VASS), will jointly organize a workshop to meet the new request from the Office of the National Assembly. In particular, Dr. Thanh, Vice Chairman of the Economic and Budgetary Committee of the National Assembly, requested further support on awarenessraising among the parliamentarians. As Vietnam has 450 MPs, Dr. Thanh thinks there is still a need for awareness raising and capacity building for the lawmakers. Specifically, he requested the workshop in December to address the following issues: - The controversial investment and enterprise laws which is under much debate, especially those issues related to GATS; - Dispute settlement and remedies, and IPR issues; - International experiences on the impact of WTO accession, implementation, and post-wto challenges (both judicial and policy, internal and external challenges). Objective of the workshop This 2-day training workshop on Vietnam s WTO accession: remaining policy and legal issues aims to: 1

2 - Provide both policy and legal options and international experiences on preaccession requirements and post-accession issues for the members of the National Assembly to facilitate an informed decision making process; - Raise awareness among those MPs who missed the past workshops on specific WTO requirements, Vietnam s specific commitments and judicial implementation issues; - Provide opportunities for exchanging views between MPs, government officials and international experts on issues of interest, especially new information after WTO s Hong Kong Ministerial meeting. The audience There were several groups of participants: - Members of National Assembly in Southern provinces - Senior officials from the Budgetary and Economic Committee of the National Assembly - Senior officials from the Budgetary and Economic Department People s Council in Southern provinces - Researchers of Institutes and Lecturers of Universities - Journalists from local newspapers, journals and televisions. The total number of participants is about 72. Nearly 30 Members of Parliaments, along with more than 30 other government officials and provincial People s Council members attended the two-day workshop, and the vast majority was present for the entire two long days Tasks of the CAF In organizing the workshop, the CAF was responsible for the following tasks: to discuss with the WBI on the workshop program, to identify and select relevant participants for the workshop in cooperation with the Budgetary and Economic Committee of the National Assembly, to invite domestic speakers, to translate presentation papers, select relevant readings to be included in the hand-out for participants, to carry out all other technical preparation of the workshop such as prepare folders, distribute and collect evaluation forms, record and transcribe the lectures/oral presentations into written texts. Reports of the workshop Mr. Nguyen Duc Kien, Chairman of the Budgetary and Economic Committee of the National Assembly opened the workshop on 19 December morning. Followed Mr. Kien was welcome address by Dr. Do Hoai Nam, Chairman of Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences. Dr. Will Martin, on behalf of the World Bank, also joined the opening session with his welcome remarks. The workshop was a high-level event appreciated by the National Assembly. Mr. Nguyen Duc Kien, Chairman of the Budgetary and Economic Committee and a member of 13-person Standing Committee of the National Assembly (higher than ministerial 2

3 level), chaired and moderated all the sessions during the two days and asked questions of the speakers. His presence alone demonstrated the high level of importance accorded to the workshop by the government. The workshop addressed major policy and legal issues requested by the National Assembly, such as the benefits and challenges of Vietnam s accession, what to do and not to do in negotiations, lessons from other acceding or new member countries, and specific legal issues related to TRIMS, GATS and Dispute Settlement, and new information from WTO's Hong Kong Ministerial meeting and implications to Vietnam. The speakers were a reasonably well-balanced mix of Vietnamese nationals and World Bank employees or consultants. Four Vietnamese speakers played significant roles in tailoring the event to Vietnam. Thanks to Mr. Kien's leadership, the level of interaction was very high. A significant number of them posed questions to the speakers, raising points that reflected a reasonably high level of understanding of the issues being discussed, such as: - Vietnam s treatment as a non-market economy for dumping purposes, - Exposure to safeguards with regard to textile and other imports, - Why are developing countries reluctant to open service market? - To which extent the services market (especially financial services) would have to be opened to foreign presence; - When making commitment to WTO accession, will Vietnam will allowed to have road map for liberalizing services? - Is WTO accession influenced by political factor? - Does the principle of equality between rich and poor countries hold within WTO in reality? - What is the rationale behind the fact that some countries face more difficult in the accession process than others? - What about the link between opening and anti-terrorism? - How should developing countries do in order to more effectively deal with dispute settlement issues? - What about the state organization model in dealing with anti dumping issues in other countries in general and in China in particular? - Has WTO complied with the equality principle in dispute settlement? - What about the consequences of WTO accession for banking sector? - What about the link between opening of service sector and preserving national identity? - What about the role of China in developing countries group in WTO? In closing session, Mr. Kien gave overall assessment of two-day workshop and expressed his gratitude to WBI and VASS, which are co-organizers of the workshop. He highly appreciated cooperation between WBI, VASS and Budgetary and Economic Committee 3

4 of the National Assembly and he wished that the cooperation will develop in the future. Then Dr. Nguyen Thang and Dr. Yan Wang gave grateful thanks to all participants, international and Vietnamese speakers and organizers for their contribution. After workshop, Mr. Kien prepared the report on the workshop and submitted to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly. The full text of the report will be translated into English and will be send to the WBI. Evaluation Result of the workshop There were 65 participants responded the evaluation questionnaire. Among them 78.5% were participants, 4.6% were observers and 16.95% were resource persons. 75.4% of them were male and 24.6% female. 70.8% attended all sections of the training, 29.2% attended most of sections and nobody attended half or less of it. 1) For evaluation of different aspects of the training program, participants were asked to give their answers in a progressive scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the minimum and 5 is the maximum. - The relevance of the training course to current work or function of participants: 1.5% gave the rating of 1; 3.1% gave the rating of 3; 29.2% gave the rating of 4 and 66.2% gave the rating of 5. - The extent to which participants have acquired information that is new: 1.54% gave the rating of 2; 16.92% gave the rating of 3; 56.92% gave the rating of 4 and gave the rating of 5. - The usefulness for participants of the information that they have obtained: 1.5% gave the rating of 3; 44.6% gave the rating of 4 and 53.8% gave the rating of 5. - The focus of the training course on what participants specifically needed to learn: 3.1% gave the rating of 3; 60.0% gave the rating of 4 and 36.9% gave the rating of 5. - The extent to which the content of the training course matched the announced objectives: 1.54% gave the rating of 3; 49.23% gave the rating of 4 and 49.23% gave the rating of 5. - The overall usefulness of the training course: 1.5% gave the rating of 3; 33.9% gave the rating of 4 and 64.6 gave the rating of 5. 2) For evaluation of speakers of the training course, participants were asked to evaluate on a progressive scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the minimum and 5 is the maximum, the evaluation results are as follows; Will Martin: - Manner of presentation: 32.8% gave the rating of 4 and 67.2% gave the rating of 5. 4

5 - Technical content of the presentation: 34.4% gave the rating of 4 and 65.6% gave the rating of 5. Ma Xiaoye: - Manner of presentation: 49.2% gave the rating of 4 and 50.8% gave the rating of 5. - Technical content of the presentation: 1.5% gave the rating of 3; 33.9% gave the rating of 4 and 64.6% gave the rating of 5. David Gantz: - Manner of presentation: 1.5% gave the rating of 3; 27.7% gave the rating of 4 and 70.8% gave the rating of 5. - Technical content of the presentation: 1.5% gave the rating of 3; 29.2% gave the rating of 4 and 69.2% gave the rating of 5. Johannes Bernabe: - Manner of presentation: 1.5% gave the rating of 3; 29.2% gave the rating of 4 and 69.2% gave the rating of 5. - Technical content of the presentation: 1.5% gave the rating of 3; 23.1% gave the rating of 4 and 75.4% gave the rating of 5. Yan Wang: - Manner of presentation: 12.3% gave the rating of 4 and 87.7% gave the rating of 5. - Technical content of the presentation: 6.25% gave the rating of 4 and 93.85% gave the rating of 5. Sameena Dost: - Manner of presentation: 33.3% gave the rating of 4 and 66.7% gave the rating of 5. - Technical content of the presentation: 34.9% gave the rating of 4 and 65.1% gave the rating of 5. 5

6 Appendix 1: Workshop Agenda Vietnam s WTO Accession: Remaining Policy and Legal Issues Time : December 19-20, 2005 Venue: The Office of National Assembly Guest-house, 194 Hoang Van Thu St., Phu Nhuan District, Hochiminh City Monday, December 19 8:00 8:30 Registration 8:30 9:00 Welcome Remarks - Mr. Nguyen Duc Kien, Chairman of the Economic and Budgetary Committee, National Assembly - Dr. Do Hoai Nam, Chairman, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences - Dr. Will Martin, Lead Economist, The World Bank 9:00-9:45 Session 1. Deepening Trade Integration: Global Perspective and New Issues from WTO s Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting Speaker: Dr. Will Martin, Lead Economist, the World Bank 9:45 10:30 WTO Accession Approaches in Other Countries: What to do and what not to do during negotiations? Lessons for Vietnam Speakers: Dr. Ma Xiaoye, President, Academy for World Watch, and former trade negotiator, China 10:30 10:45 Coffee Break 10:45-11:00 Q&A and discussion 11:00 11:45 Session 2. Enacting WTO-consistent laws: International experience and Vietnam s approach Speakers: Dr. David Gantz, Professor and director, University of Arizona 11:45 12:00 Q&A and discussion 12:00 13:30 Lunch 13:30-14:15 Session 3. Vietnam s Legal Reform: opportunities and challenges in post WTO accession period. International experiences in dealing with legal issues Speaker: Dr. Hoang Phuoc Hiep, director of International Law Department, the Ministry of Justice, Vietnam 14:15 14:30 Q&A 6

7 14:30 15:15 Omnibus - law making technique: its application to the works of the National Assembly Speaker: Dr. Ngo Duc Manh, Director of the Center for Information, Library and Research Services, Office of the National Assembly 15:15-15:30 Q&A and discussion 15:30 15:45 Coffee break 15:45 16:30 Session 4. Investment Measures under TRIMs: International experience Speaker: Dr. David Gantz 16:30 17:00 Q&A and discussion Tuesday, December 20 8:00-9:30 Session 5 :International Experiences on Implementing GATS requirements: Horizontal issues and Financial Services Panelists: Dr. Yan Wang, Senior Economist, World Bank Dr. Johannes Bernabe, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, and a former trade negotiator for the Philippines. 9:30 9:45 Q&A and discussion 9:45 10:00 Coffee break 10:00-10:50 Session 6. Dispute Settlement: International Experience and Implications to Vietnam Panelists: Sameena Dost, Senior Counsel, The World Bank and David Gantz, Professor, on SPS, TBT cases. Footwear sector: opportunities and challenges in the process of WTO 10:50-11:20 accession Speaker: Dr. Nguyen Thi Tong, General Secretary of Vietnam s Footwear Association. Moderator: Mr. Nguyen Duc Kiên Vietnamese legal regulation on anti-dumping and their consistency with 11:20-11:50 the WTO s requirements Speaker: Dr. Le Hoang Oanh (Ms) from the MOT Moderator: Mr. Nguyen Duc Kien 11:50 12:00 Q&A and discussion 12:00 13:30 Lunch 13:30-14:30 Session 7: Information on WTO s Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting and Implications to Vietnam 7

8 Speakers: Dr. Johannes Bernabe, Dr. David Gantz Moderator: Mr. Nguyen Duc Kien 14:30 15:00 Q&A and discussion 15:00 15:15 Coffee Break 15:15 16:30 Session 8: Post-WTO Implementation and Challenges: International Experience and Implication for Vietnam Panelists Ma Xiaoye, David Gantz and other speakers Moderator: Mr. Nguyen Duc Kien Q&A and discussion 16:30 17: 00 Closing Remarks (30 min) Mr. Nguyen Duc Kien, Chairman of the Economic and Budgetary Committee, National Assembly Dr. Nguyen Thang, Acting Director, Centre for Analysis and Forecast, VASS Dr. Yan WANG, Senior Economist, World Bank Seminar evaluation End of the seminar 8