(VOVworld) - Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has responded to National Assembly deputies questions on anti-trade fraud, tourism and agricultural development. He said Vietnam has participated in 10 free trade deals and intends to join the ASEAN Economic Community this year: “First and foremost, Vietnam needs to change its legal framework to harmonize with integration requirements. The Government has approved trade and investment promotion programs to help businesses in international integration. We expect the business community to map out their own strategies and plans of actions for integration.”

Regarding voters’ concern about hefty construction bills for administrative buildings in several provinces, the Deputy Prime Minister asked for an immediate halt to these projects.

The Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang said that he expected incoming free trade deals with the EU, the Eurasia Economic Union and South Korea to deepen and widen Vietnam’s international integration: “Negotiations must ensure Vietnam’s core interests, which is market access to Vietnamese goods of comparative advantages, especially textiles and garments. We have achieved these objectives in free trade deals where negotiating partners agreed to open their markets to those Vietnamese goods.”

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc cited measures to ensure social security and order: “The legal institutional framework will be finetuned while all-out efforts to foster local community security will be strengthened. All organizations and individuals harboring crimes must be strictly punished.”