In furtherance of the Government�s Resolution No. 05/2002/NQ-CP of April 24, 2002 on a number of measures to implement the 2002 socio-economic plan;

After obtaining opinions of the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, some trade associations and directive opinions of the Prime Minister in Official Dispatch No. 5109/VPCP-KTTH of September 16, 2002 of the Government Office; in order to enhance export encouragement and promotion, the Ministry of Finance hereby prescribes the mechanism of spendings in support of market development and trade promotion activities as follows:

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. Annually, the State shall put aside a budgetary amount calculated on export turnover to support trade and export promotion activities under national key programs (hereinafter called trade promotion programs for short), aiming to:

- Create conditions for enterprises to approach export markets.

- Improve the competitiveness of export products.

- Raise the export-marketing knowledge and skills.

- Diversify goods items, reform commodity structure and expand export markets.

- Propagate for Vietnam�s export goods.

2. On the basis of the State�s export orientations in each period, the Ministry of Trade shall assume the prime responsibility in synthesizing opinions of various ministries and branches, then evaluating and proposing national key trade promotion programs, clearly stating their contents, implementation duration, managing agencies and funding estimates, for submission to the Prime Minister for approval.

3. For some localities which can allocate funding from surplus budget revenues and other lawful financial sources, the presidents of the provincial/municipal People�s Committees shall decide to set up local trade promotion funds or export support funds for spending on export encouragement, including trade promotion activities prescribed in this Circular.

The provincial/municipal Trade Services shall assume the prime responsibility in formulating local key trade promotion programs for submission to the provincial/municipal People�s Committees for approval.

4. Support principles:

- Funding for the implementation of key trade promotion programs shall be contributed by participating enterprises and partly supported by the State via the program-managing agencies.

- The agencies assigned to manage the programs shall have to ensure that funding is used economically and efficiently, and take responsibility for the spending contents strictly according to current regimes.

II. SPECIFIC PROVISIONS

1. Contents of key trade promotion activities eligible for support cover:

1.1. Gathering trade information, conducting export propagation and setting up data centers in support of enterprises;

1.2. Providing export consultancy;

1.3. Organizing training courses in order to raise export business capability and skills for enterprises;

1.4. Organizing export fairs and exhibitions;

1.5. Surveying and seeking export markets;

1.6. Propagating for national trademarks and typical export products;

1.7. Initial expenses for building infrastructure for trade promotion: building bonded warehouses, trade promotion centers and displaying export products at home and abroad;

1.8. Conducting the research into the application and development of e-commerce in service of export;

1.9. Other trade promotion activities decided by the Prime Minister.

2. Subjects enjoying support: shall be enterprises of all economic sectors covered by key trade promotion programs.

3. Subjects receiving support: shall be trade associations, trade promotion agencies under various ministries and branches, or some eligible enterprises designated to act as agencies managing national key trade promotion programs approved by the Prime Minister (for programs supported by the central budget) or the presidents of the provincial/municipal People�s Committees (for programs supported by the local budgets).

Enterprises providing trade promotion services shall not be entitled to support.

The program-managing agencies shall have to mobilize funding from contributions of enterprises of all economic sectors, which participate in the programs, receive the State�s support, and use such amounts for the programs efficiently and for the right purposes.

4. Support levels:

- To support 50% of expenses for activities stated at Points 1.1 to 1.5 of Section 1, Part II.

- To support 70% of expenses for the remaining activities.

The special cases shall be decided by the Prime Minister or the presidents of the provincial/municipal People�s Committees (for localities).

5. Capital sources for support

Annually, the State shall put aside a budgetary amount equal to 0.25% of the total national export turnover of the previous year (excluding crude oil turnover) and transfer such amount into the Export Support Fund to form the support source for national key trade promotion programs. In cases where such amount is not paid out, the remainder shall be deducted into the amount to be spent in the subsequent year.

For localities: The provincial/municipal People�s Committees shall base themselves on the capacity of their localities and the demands for export encouragement spendings to decide the appropriate levels of deduction for the local trade promotion funds or export support funds.

6. Procedures for support granting:

- On the basis of the total funding level for each national key trade promotion program already approved, annually, the program-managing agencies shall elaborate and send the spending estimates for trade promotion activities and the support estimates to the Ministry of Finance (concurrently to the Ministry of Trade)

For localities, these estimates shall be sent to the provincial/municipal Finance and Pricing Services (concurrently to the Trade Services).

- Based on the estimates and implementation tempo, after conducting the appraisal, the Ministry of Finance shall advance from the Export Support Fund (or the provincial/municipal Finance and Pricing Services shall advance from the local trade promotion funds or export support funds) the estimated support amounts to the program-managing agencies for carrying out trade promotion activities.

7. Final settlement of support:

Annually, the program-managing agencies shall have to sum up all actual collection and spending items and apportion implementation funding according to the proportion prescribed in Part II, Section 3, in order to publicly announce the final settlements with financial bodies (the Finance Ministry�s Enterprises Finance Department or the provincial/municipal Finance and Pricing Services) and enterprises participating in the programs, and at the same time, send such settlements to trade agencies of the same levels.

On the basis of the final settlements, the program-managing agencies shall have to return the surplus funding amount to, or be entitled to receive the deficit funding amount from, parties obligated to contribute funding to the programs.

The program-managing agencies shall be subject to the inspection and supervision by functional agencies as prescribed.

8. Provisions on accounting:

- Enterprises participating in the programs shall be entitled to account their contributions to the program-managing agencies into their costs and circulation charges.

- The program-managing agencies shall account the programs� collection and spending items separately and fully according to the State�s regulation.

III. IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

1. This Circular takes effect after its signing, applies to trade promotion activities from 2002 to 2005 and replaces the Finance Ministry�s Circular No. 61/2001/TT-BTC of August 1, 2001 guiding the spendings in support of market development and trade promotion activities.

2. In the course of implementation, if meeting with any difficulties and troubles, agencies and enterprises are requested to report them to the Ministry of Finance for study and settlement.

For the Minister of Finance
Vice Minister
TRAN VAN TA