Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU) are the two institutions which have considerable differences in development but many similarities. The EU has developed a monetary union, while ASEAN has just finalized the Free Trade Area and is looking forward to forming a Community in late 2015. Therefore, integration in ASEAN is increasingly similar to the integration in the EU. The outstanding difference is that ASEAN accept the diversity of members; while the EU sets very strict conditions for countries wishing to join. Since the early 1990s, Vietnam and Poland have put their efforsts in economic reform to integrate into the respective regions. In Poland, the process took place promptly, widely and deeply on all aspects according to the EU criteria with a clear roadmap. While Poland performed both economic reform and political renewal simultaneously, Vietnam did not meet specific criteria, nor had the tight schedule, so the reform process has been slow. Vietnam implemented economic reform at first and political reform later. Generally, because of difference of the standards and intensity of integration, the "shocks" that Vietnam had to face are less than Poland did. In contrast, Vietnam has had to implement reforms until now. This makes Vietnam miss some important opportunities.

Proactively and positively Vietnam has been integrating into the international arena. Joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is one of the specific strategies of international integration of Vietnam. This agreement is a wider and deeper commitment than the FTAs which Vietnam has signed. TPP refers not only to trade, investment, but also issues of institutions, state-owned enterprises (SOE), labor, environment etc. Thus, joining TPP is consistent with Vietnam in the period of pushing strongly institutional reform, restructuring the economy and shifting the growth paradigm from "width" to "depth" nowadays. TPP brings to Vietnam more opportunities for increased trade, institutional reform, economic restructuring etc... but also the challenges of competition in the domestic market, rules of origin applicable to the export products, technical barriers and the reliance on outside etc. To obtain benefits from joining TPP, Vietnam needs to further reform from inside; otherwise the opportunities of TPP will easily turn into challenges.