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SCMP Reporter

VIETNAM yesterday declared its commitment to easing its fearsome bureaucracy to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but warned that each country had to make its own progress.

  Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam said trade and economic development were priorities for Vietnam's historic joining of the trade association later this week.

  Free trade and eventual membership of AFTA - the ASEAN Free Trade Area - were already being targeted, he said.

  'As far as membership of AFTA is concerned, the sooner the better,' Mr Cam said before leaving for Brunei, where he will sign Vietnam into ASEAN on Friday.

  'The process of tariff reductions will be implemented readily, but I understand that each country must make its own progress.

  'Vietnam will be able to respond to specific conditions and requirements and will meet regulations specified by AFTA.'   ASEAN members - Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia - have signed accords pledging to lower tariffs on all manufactured goods to just five per cent or less by 2003.

   Mr Cam warned that the timetable for Vietnam's entry had still to be hammered out with other members.

  The country was already committed to sweeping tax reforms but he said he believed Vietnam faced both challenges and opportunities in trying to catch up with its new friends.

  Several senior ASEAN diplomats have raised fears that Vietnam's complex structure of charges and hefty tariffs are too crucial to the country's developing economy to be tampered with.

  'We're not sure of the will of Vietnam to fully participate, especially when middle-ranking cadres realise that cutting tariffs could mean considerable losses in tax revenue short-term,' one said.

  'It will be a great challenge for them to meet and us to keep them to it, but I don't expect them to be ready until at least 2010.'   Other diplomats were unsure how Vietnam would cope amid competition from other members, particularly those vying for foreign investment and seeking to develop manufacture-for-export business.

  Mr Cam said Vietnam realised short-term tax losses could be offset by increased trade, saying the country was looking ahead broadly.

  Any cut in import charges would have to be handled by the country's national assembly, which met twice a year to vote on government policy and pass legislation, he said.

  Already Vietnam's exports to ASEAN countries have risen from US$20 million in 1989 to US$740 million last year.

  ASEAN nations have so far invested nearly US$2.5 billion in more than 200 projects - 23 per cent of the total of $14.3 billion that has moved into the country since foreign deals were first licensed in 1988.



Vietnam ready for ASEAN changes