Strategic Services Policies and International Trade Integration in Vietnam

Strategic Services Policies and International Trade Integration in Vietnam

The aim of this paper is to analyze Vietnam`s services policies and to evaluate their effectiveness and consistency, in the framework of the country`s increasing international economic integration. Among the various services sectors, the paper focuses specifically on a sub-group, namely strategic services,(and on energy and telecommunications in particular. The paper is organized as follows. The introduction sketches a few basic facts about the Vietnamese economy. Section 1 underlines the key role of strategic services, and describes the main tenets of economic reforms in the domain of services. Section 2 analyzes the international trade dimension of services policies in Vietnam, presently characterized by the recent signing of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the US and by the on-going multilateral negotiations aimed at accessing the WTO. Section 3 focuses on Vietnam`s policies in the area of strategic services, with particular attention for energy and telecommunications. Section 5 proposes a few conclusive remarks. The Annex reports a few basic facts and figures on Vietnam`s services sector.