US could be Vietnam’s biggest investor: officials
Investment from the United States is forecast to surge in Vietnam over the next few years, making it the top inves tor in the Southeast Asian nation, government offi cials have predicted.
Experts from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) said the country has recently welcomed executives from many giant US firms.
In May and June alone, two US delegations arrived in the country with dozens of offi cials from major companies studying the investment environment.
Represented were such international heavy hitters as Boeing, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, IBM, Time Warner, Abbott, Ford Motors, and General Electric.
They were especially inter ested in the Vietnamese Government's macroeconomic policies, and most expressed the desire for an investment environ ment that would enable them to invest long-term.
Rising interest
Tran Tuan Anh, the Vietnamese consul in San Francisco, said American business interest in Vietnam has risen in recent years, particularly after WTO accession and the US’s establishment of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with the market-oriented socialist nation.
Colin Low, President of Gen eral Electric (GE) in Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam, said that Vietnam was ripe for in vestment after his recent visit to the country.
Ministry experts said many US investors have submitted proposals for large projects and some have already signed agreements with Vietnamese part ners.
Nguyen Bich Van, deputy di rector of the Department of For eign Investment, said during last year's APEC conference that AES Corporation had signed an agreement with the Vietnam Coal and Minerals Cor poration to set up a US$1.46 bil lion joint venture to build the Mong Duong thermal power plant in the northern province of Quang Ninh.
"The project may be licensed this year," he said.
Two US insurance companies, ACE and Liberty Mutual, have al ready obtained licenses to do business in Vietnam.
Gannon has submitted a pro posal to build a 1,000-MW power plant in Dong Nai Province near Ho Chi Minh city
Conoco Phillips has invested some $1 billion in petroleum ex ploration and drilling in Vietnam. The com pany has said it will invest billions more if it finds opportunities.
Leading IT firms like Microsoft, Unisys, Qualcomm, and Motorola have also expressed a desire to invest in Vietnam. Qualcomm wants to supply mobile telephone infrastructure to Vietnamese companies like EVN Telecoms and Hanoi Telecoms while building a wireless internet network as well.
Van from the foreign investment department said the ministry would send promo tional teams to the US to attract investors this year.
To encourage American in vestors, the Government would also offer to help them sort out prob lems they are likely to meet in the country by setting up joint-ministerial working groups for assistance.
The Government will also target overseas Vietnamese investment.
Solid foundation
The Department of Foreign In vestment reported that by mid-May US companies had invested more than $2.3 billion in the country, becoming the nation’s 8th largest foreign investor.
But the department's director, Phan Huu Thang, said that the ac tual figure was much higher since many US companies invested in Vietnam through subsidiaries based in Britain, the Virgin Islands, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Among them were Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, Unocal and Conoco, he added.
The department's statistics show that US investment through third countries is worth around $2.4 billion.
Intel, for instance, applied last year through its Hong Kong sub sidiary to invest over $1 billion to set up the Intel Products Company to manufacture computer chips in Vietnam’s most expensive project to date. |
