Government procurement clause in EVFTA and implications for Vietnam

Abstract
EVFTA is one of the newest endeavors of Vietnam regarding the international integration process, which is anticipated to be beneficial for Vietnam in many aspects across industries. The government procurement sector does not stay out of this influence. This article mainly aims to explore the government procurement sector of Vietnam, the performance of the government regarding managing this market and how it will be affected and reformed by EVFTA. More importantly, by examining the significant factors that may have an impact on the EVFTA's implementation from Vietnam's perspective, the article attempts to assess the compatibility of the current situation of Vietnam with the fundamental conditions to conduct public procurement regulations of EVFTA efficiently. The article collects, summarizes, and analyzes the secondary data from trustworthy sources like the Vietnam General Statistics Office, the ranking table of the International Telecommunication Union, the official annual report of state departments of Vietnam, and other documents like journal articles, research papers,etc. Another methodology employed in the research is the in-depth interviews with professional experts who have been working for several years in the international integration field. the article discovers that Vietnam is capable of implementing EVFTA's chapter 9 efficiently but with more careful preparation. The article also points out that despite of having a strong mindset of globalization, Vietnam's public expenditures are still loosely covered by laws, which leads to irrational allocation on national budget. A number of implications are suggested to localize the EVFTA's regulations and recommendations are made to apply modern technologies to improve the procurement system, especially on the capacity of government on managing the government procurement sector. The authors hope to help state authorities to have a broader look and improve the sector as well as embrace the opportunities from EVFTA regarding government procurement sector.