In mid-June, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) organised a business delegation that accompanied the Chairman of National Assembly on his official working visit to Hungary, Romani, Bulgaria and France. The Vietnam Business Forum had a talk with Mr Hoang Van Dung, standing vice president of VCCI, on the visit.
Do companies accompanying the Chairman of National Assembly has potential in business cooperation with partners those four countries?
The business delegation had 48 companies mainly operating in oil and gas, mining, steel, transportation, tourism, service, construction, real estate, urban infrastructure, agricultural products, foods, garment and textile, and handicraft. Vietnamese companies can expand cooperation in these traditional and potential fields with partners in the visited countries.
During the visit, VCCI coordinated with National Assembly offices, embassies and chambers of commerce in the four visited countries to organise four business forums. These forums drew special care of the Chairman of National Assembly and had summaries and valuations of attants. According to attants, the results were very good and effective.
Could you tell in detail the results of the forums VCCI coordinated to organise?
The Vietnam - Hungary Business Forum was held in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, drawing the attance of 120 companies in the two countries. Parliament presidents of the two countries delivered speeches at the forum, expressing confirmation to friship traditional relations. The legal environments and integration tency are creating new opportunities for enterprises. The leaders of the two countries also committed to supporting and creating conditions favourable for the two business communities to promote their traditional relationships and pace up economic and commercial cooperation in the coming time. The forum had enough time for enterprises to meet, establish relations, explore business cooperation and exchange business opportunities. They reached several commitments regarding oil and gas equipment and consultancy provision, commercial cooperation and oil and gas production equipment exchange cooperation in ecological tourism development, fishery development, tourist ship building, agricultural product export to EU, transfer of agricultural processing technology (initially, Hungary pledged to buy 10,000 tonnes of rice) and cooperation in wine production and trading. At this forum, Vietnam and Hungary signed contracts worth US$1 million in importing Vietnamese clothes into the EU market.
The Vietnam - Romania Business Forum was held in Buest, the capital of Romania, attracting the presence of 200 companies, with many being overseas Vietnamese in Romania. Atting companies of the two countries initially exchanged cooperation in cement production equipment, mining, electricity transmission, aluminium manufacturing, garment, training research and finance management. Through talks with overseas Vietnamese companies, visiting Vietnamese companies explored information about commercial practices in Romania, methods to approach this market, the demands and tastes of the Romanian market as well as the EU market.
The Vietnam - Bulgaria Business Forum was organised in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, had the attance of 160 companies of the two countries. Parliament presidents of the two countries informed atting companies of the results of two-way talks and contents of cooperation agreement signed. They emphasised that the favourable legal environments were creating opportunities for companies of the two nations to expand traditional ties and strengthen commercial and investment cooperation. Bulgarian enterprises were specially concerned about the chances to meet Vietnamese enterprises to explore business opportunities in Vietnam. Companies of the two countries reached many commercial and investment commitments. Particularly, Bulgaria will import 10,000 tonnes of rice and 7,000 tonnes of teas from Vietnam, cooperate with Vietnam to manufacture animal feeds and organic agricultural products to export to the EU, s 1,000 Vietnamese labourers to work in Bulgaria, cooperate in steel industry, real estate investment, beverage production, grape growing and wine production in Vietnam, provide electric turbines, sanitation equipment for Vietnam and build medicine plants in Vietnam.
The Vietnam - France Business Forum attracted a large number of companies and many big contracts were signed there. Could you provide some more detail?
Around 200 companies atted this forum. Apart from introducing the business environment and answering queries from companies, the president of French Confederation of Business Enterprises (MEDEF) and the chairman of Paris Chamber of Commerce expressed the commitments to speed up cooperation between French companies and Vietnamese ones. France&rsquos giant companies like France Telecom, Casino and Thales greeted the Vietnamese Chairman of National Assembly and reported to him their products and cooperation strategies with Vietnam in the coming time. Not only large-scaled companies but also small and medium ones of France wanted to invest in Vietnam.
At the forum, many Vietnamese enterprises met potential partners and had commercial and investment commitments. Notably, Savour Group together with three other groups (managing US$50 billion) were seeking investment projects in Vietnam, BNP Bank Société Générale Bank signed agreements with the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) to invest US$400 million to develop the ship fleet of Vinalines. Casino Group, which has invested in BigC supermarket chain in Vietnam for seven years, was planning to invest additional US$250 million in the next three years to expand operations. The workforce in BigC chain will increase from current 1,000 people to 4,000-6,000 people and this group will increase the import of Vietnamese goods to France and the EU from 800 containers a year to 2,400 containers. France Telecom Group, which was cooperating with VNPT and had internet transmission projects regarding in HCM City, wanted to buy stake of MobiFone and to introduce 3G technology to Vietnam. At the same time, it also pledged to cooperate in IT development and telecom human resource training. Global Development Company signed an agreement with Saigon Agriculture Corporation to buy cashew nuts and rice in large quantities from Vietnam and export fertilisers to Vietnam.
Through your visit, what do you think about the potential of cooperation with Vietnamese companies and partners in those countries in the coming time?
The strengthening of business ties with these countries is very necessary now and is very favourable. In fact, Eastern European countries care much about Vietnam. At all forums, especially the Vietnam - Bulgaria Business Forum, atting companies proactively met and discussed concrete cooperation opportunities. Besides, the demand for labour in Eastern European countries is very high and Vietnamese companies should exploit this potentiality. Several labour supply contracts were signed by Vietnamese companies and foreign partners, laying the groundwork for further future cooperation.
After this four-country visit, VCCI will organise more activities to approach the Eastern Europe region and new members of the EU to consolidate ties with businesses in this region.
Quynh Anh
Vietnamese
