Vietnam InvTrade 2007 Expected to Lure More Foreign Capital to Vietnam

The Vietnam Foreign-invested Enterprise Association and the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment introduced the Vietnam International Expo for Investment and Trade - Vietnam InvTrade 2007 - in mid June. This event is scheduled to open at Ho Chi Minh City Int'l Exhibition & Convention Centre (HIECC) at 446 Hoang Van Thu Street, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City from July 25 to 28, 2007.

 

On this occasion, Vietnam Business Forum reporter talked with Mr Hoang Van Huan, chief of FIA and director of Investment Promotion Centre - North Vietnam (IPCN - FIA). He is also a second chief of organising board for Vietnam Invtrade 2007.

This is a practical event to help intensify investment and trade promotion activities in the integration process, and to take advantage of opportunities since Vietnam joined the WTO. For enterprises, this is a good chance to develop trademarks, products and services, as well as to seek partners and business opportunities. Especially, unlike other popular trade fairs, Vietnam InvTrade 2007 is also a 20 year celebration of Foreign Investment Law in Vietnam.

When we issued the Law on Foreign Investment in Vietnam, total social investment capital was around US$1 billion. The state-owned economic sector was the backbone of the national economy and foreign investment capital only accounted for about 25 per cent of total social investment capital. Meanwhile, significantly more capital was needed to reach annual economic growth of 7-8 per cent. At that time, the national economy was experiencing a very hard time. All savings were in gold and no money was invested. It was difficult to draw investment because we faced embargos and only a few international organisations gave humanitarian aid. There was hardly any development aid at that time.

 

In that context, Vietnam made a breakthrough by issuing the Foreign Investment Law to draw FDI capital for social and economic development. International investors acknowledged that our law was more flexible than several regional countries because we issued the law 20-30 years later than them; thus, we quickly achieved positive results, especially in 1991-1996. In 1997, the Asian financial crisis swept away the growing foreign investment attraction of Vietnam. Until 2003, foreign investment inflows signalled recovery and increase. We attracted US$4.2 billion in 2004, up 35 per cent against 2003, US$6.5 billion in 2005 and US$10.2 billion in 2006. In early 2007, we set the target of US$12 billion. If we had effective attraction measures, the figure can possibly higher. In the first five months of 2007, Vietnam attracted US$3.8 billion in fresh registered capital and US$580 million in capital increases from existing projects. As of late May 2007, Vietnam had 7,300 valid foreign-invested projects with US$65.6 billion registered capital, US$31 billion of which was disbursed. We hope that through Vietnam InvTrade 2007, domestic and foreign investors will increase their investment and commercial activities in Vietnam.

So far, 180 enterprises have placed 230 booths. Most participants are interested foreign companies from Japan, South Korea, the US, the EU and ASEAN. A small percentage of Vietnamese enterprises will take part in the event. Applications for a place in the exhibition are open until July 5, 2007 and we hope to hear from more attendants in the remaining time. Vietnam InvTrade 2007 will introduce industrial parks, export processing zones, economic zones and investment portfolios, especially projects in the fields of high tech, tourism, education and training. The exhibits consist of mechanical products, ships, ship parts, products of supporting industries, transportation, healthcare, electricity and electronics, telecom, new material, consumer goods, services and many others.

 

In addition to registering enterprises, we are also actively inviting foreign business delegations and foreign investors to the exhibition and to contact participants.

 

In parallel with that, we will also organise a seminar on foreign investment, slated for July 26, expected to draw 200 delegates. The seminar will review foreign investment in the past 20 years and Vietnamese trade policies after WTO accession, and introduce the potential of several local projects with presentations from international organisations and foreign investors.

I think Vietnam has many advantages in attracting foreign investment capital. They see Vietnam as a destination of investment for various reasons, such as social and political stability, a high and sustainable economic growth rate, a rapidly improving legal system and an accelerated integration process.

At present, we and investment promotion centres of the ministry and localities have organised many investment promotion programmes and have warmly received foreign investor delegations seeking opportunities in Vietnam. Currently, many world-dominating companies are eyeing the Vietnamese market. To successfully carry out these activities, we will attract big high-tech projects and projects from leading firms.

 

Since the start of this year, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and relevant bodies have actively worked to build up Vietnam’s image in the eyes of international partners. We have sent investment promotion delegations to other countries, accompanied state and government leaders visiting other countries, assisted provinces to introduce investment opportunities abroad, and organised seminars and conferences on investment promotion. We recently coordinated with Asia News Network (ANN) and Vietnam News Agency to organise the “Vietnam Economic Forum” in Ho Chi Minh City. This event was run by numerous international media outlets, especially Asian ones. Information about the development of Vietnam is frequently run by foreign newspapers.