The parties to the negotiations are to deal with remaining issues from now until November, with another negotiation session taking place on October 25 to resolve major issues.

According to Eirik Glenne, Norwegian ambassador to the WTO and chairman of the WTO's general council, an agreement on Vietnam's WTO membership is likely to be finalised in time for the general council meeting, which will gather its 149 members in early November.

Once Vietnam's membership is approved and Vietnam ratifies the agreement, the country could become the WTO's 150^th member after a further 30 days. It means that Vietnam could join the WTO by early December at the earliest.

**** French “Le Monde” newspaper published an article on October 9, saying that Vietnam is likely to be admitted into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) after the institution’s general assembly meeting in Geneva on October 10-11.

One of the reasons for this prediction, the article said, is that Vietnam is one of the most dynamic economies in Southeast Asia with its annual growth rate staying at an average of 7.2 percent over the last decade.

The country has maintained a relatively high growth rate in 2006 despite natural and epidemics such as floods in the central region and Mekong river delta, the article said, adding that the country is likely to achieve economic growth rate of 8.13 percent in 2006, slightly down from 8.4 percent in 2005.

According to the paper, since 1990, the percentage of people living under the poverty line with an average earning of less than 1 US$ per day has been reduced remarkably to 8 percent from 51 percent.

Le Monde quoted World Bank sources as saying that the Gini indicator, a tool for measuring income disparities remains stable in Vietnam at 0.37 compared to 0.35 in 1998. In addition, Vietnam’s exports value has almost doubled in recent years.