With or without US-led trade pact, Vietnam forges ahead

Hanoi

FOR Vietnam's government, talk of a collapse in a trade pact stretching across the Pacific Ocean from the US to Malaysia is failing to dent confidence.

Whether the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - a 12-nation preferential trade agreement that covers about 40 per cent of the global economy - is approved by the US Congress or not, authorities in Vietnam are forging ahead with plans to cut taxes and reduce red tape for businesses to make them more globally competitive.

"With or without TPP, our goal is to improve our investment environment," Tran Xuan Ha, a Deputy Finance Minister, said in an interview in Hanoi on July 22. "With TPP, our corporate sector will need to be even more competitive, to ensure …