National workshop series in Vietnam on ‘NTMs and Market Access’
Organised in 10 Provinces (12 Workshops)
July - December 2020.
Background
In 2019 and 2020, the ITC ‘Non-tariff measures (NTM)' project in Viet Nam developed a network of 30 certified trainers on non-tariff measures and market access. Using this network, the Viet Nam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) completed a series of 12 training workshops in 10 provinces of the country in 2020. Over the course of this training series, 760 individuals from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), governmental institutions and trade and investment support institutions (TISIs) have been trained.
The objective of the trainings was to promote transparency and awareness of market access conditions – with a special focus on non-tariff measures (NTMs) – in Vietnam. The trainings focused on introducing key concepts of tariffs and NTMs, as well as basic concepts of SPS, TBT, Rules of Origin, Trade remedies, etc. The participants applied those concepts on concrete examples on several tools disseminating information on Market access conditions such as MacMap, e-Ping and Rules of Origin Facilitator.
This series of training was possible thanks to joint financial contribution of Vietrade, GIZ and ITC.
Training participants
The twelve 2-day trainings were organized in the Northern region (Hà Nội, Quảng Ninh, Thanh Hóa, Bắc Giang and Phú Thọ), the Central Region (Huế, Đà Nẵng) and the Southern Region (Hồ Chí Minh, Cần Thơ , Đăk Lăk).
The trainings were delivered by 12 certified trainers (75% women) that are part of 'NTM Network' in Vietnam.
Overall, the workshop series with 12 trainings help build capacity of around 760 participants - an average of 63 participants per trainings. Among the participants, 87% were business owners of small and medium-sized enterprises, 5% were officers from governmental institutions, 5% from trade support institutions and 3% from other types of institutions.
The workshops also attracted good participation of women entrepreneurs and experts. In total, 47% of the participants were women. Similarly, 29% of the participants were youths. (ITC considers person below the age of 36 years as youths).
COVID-19 context and measures
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic in Viet Nam, the trainings were completed on time. The trainings were delivered in two stages: the first three trainings took place before the “second lockdown” in Viet Nam in July. The remaining workshops took place between October and early December. During the trainings, social distancing and sanitary measures were ensured by Vietrade, in line with government instructions in Viet Nam.
