Vietnam has engaged in a growing number of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements and schemes as well as regional economic integration arrangements, contain social and labour provisions related to workers’ rights.

Under Article 3 of Chapter 15 of the EVFTA entitled “Trade and Sustainable Development”, Vietnam has made a commitment, in accordance with its obligations deriving from the membership of the ILO and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its follow-up.

Following the guidance from the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (ILO MNE Declaration, 2017) and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2011), the “Responsible Supply Chains in Asia” (Vietnam) project, implemented by the ILO and the OECD and funded by the EU, will promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) / responsible business conduct (RBC) in relation to human rights, labour and environmental standards by businesses engaged in wood and seafood processing supply chains in Vietnam.

Taking the fact that the EUROCHAM in Vietnam, in addition to focusing on trade advocacy for their members, will focus also on the advocacy of Socially Responsible Business Practices, the tentative fact-finding workshop, co-funded by RSCA (Vietnam) project and EUROCHAM in Vietnam has as objectives to:

• Raise awareness on the ILO MNE Declaration, 2017 as ILO only instrument in the world which offers guidelines to multinational enterprises, governments, and employers’ and workers’ organizations in such areas as employment, training, work and life conditions, industrial relation.
• Assess awareness of European MNEs on CSR, their requirements on CSR toward national counterparts, their willingness for supporting the CSR implementation at national enterprises which are involved in the supply chains.
• Provide information on existing policy frameworks to work on the labour and social dimensions of CSR.
• Identify challenges and opportunities for European MNEs and their national suppliers in supply chains in Vietnam, viewed from labour related aspects of CSR in the context of EVFTA.
• Identify opportunities, likely mechanism for cooperation with ILO’s RSCA project for promoting the socially labour responsible practices in supply chains in Vietnam.