Hanoi, Nov. 14 -- ASEAN's rapidly growing consumer market continues to present major opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises, though firms are increasingly required to meet higher technical and origin standards.

At a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City on November 14 on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the utilisation of free trade agreement (FTA) commitments for key export sectors, Nguyen Viet Chi, Deputy Director of the Department of Multilateral Trade Policy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), stressed that after three decades in ASEAN, the bloc remains one of Vietnam's top economic partners. ASEAN is currently Vietnam's fourth-largest export market, following the US, China, and the EU.

Customs data indicates that Vietna...