Deepening Vietnam - UK Relations

“The deepening relationship between the governments of Vietnam and the United Kingdom has become a prerequisite and an important driving force to promote the Vietnam - UK people cooperation,” said Hoang Van Dung, Chairman of the Vietnam - UK Friendship Association at the seminar titled "Promotion of Vietnam - UK People Cooperation.” The event was recently held in Hanoi by the Vietnam - UK Friendship Association, UK Alumni Association and the British Council.

Mr Dung said the Vietnam - UK trade ties expanded rapidly since the 1990s. In recent years, Vietnam's exports to the UK rose 17 % per year on average. As regards, investment, by the end of December 2009, the UK had 120 valid projects with a combined registered capital of US$1.44 billion in Vietnam, ranking 14th among countries and territories investing in this Southeast Asian nation.

 

The two nations have greatly boosted the education cooperation in recent years. At present, more than 6,000 Vietnamese students are studying in British schools. The British Council has been in Vietnam since late 1993 with two offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The Council is actively training English for the community and frequently holds cultural exchanges to increase the popularity of the UK. In addition, since 1994 to date, universities of the two countries have had some 20 joint training programmes.

 

Specially, the Highland Education Development Organisation (HEDO) convinced and collaborated with domestic and foreign organisations to provide more than 200 programmes and projects in the past 20 years. The UK takes a third.

 

However, Mr Tran Ngoc Ca, Chief of the National Council for Science and Technology Policies under the Ministry Science and Technology, said: The cooperation in science and technology between Vietnam and the UK is still modest. The two countries lack official cooperation regimes; thus, the number of exchanges and cooperative projects is small. So far, only a few UK-funded projects in this field have been launched, including a medicine study, a geological environment between Vietnam’s Geology University and UK’s Aberbeen University, etc.

 

According to Ca, the overseas Vietnamese community, commonly known as Viet Kieu, has made great contributions to the Vietnamese economy by transferring remittances and investing in small and medium-sized enterprises. However, their knowledge has not been used effectively.

 

Before that context, Mr Ca proposed Vietnam need to develop human resources, including Viet Kieu and scientists, mobilised and utilised financial sources like foreign aids, and create government level cooperation: signing bilateral agreement on science, technology and innovation.

 

The British Business Group Vietnam (BBGV) was set up in 1998 and became the first licensed foreign business group in Vietnam with the goal of promoting economic relations and charitable activities.

 

Mr Patrick Regis, Chairman of BBGV, said: The further strengthening of Vietnam - UK business activities is very important to the success of BBGV, which represents the interests of some 200 UK companies in Vietnam, including the most invisible ones like HSBC, Standard Chartered, Prudential, Savills, CBRE, Jardine Matheson Group, BP, Premier Oil, Shell, Salamander, Rolls-Royce, Grant Thornton, Harvey Nash, KPMG, PWC, Ernst & Young and Freshfields. In addition, BBGV has many small and medium enterprises which have contributed to the country’s dynamism.

 

"BBGV has recently enhanced the role as a social network and a charitable organisation focusing on trade and investment promotion, and contributing more to administrative reform and the development of friendly business environment in Vietnam," said Patrick Regis.

 

However, according to Mr Patrick Regis, to improve the business environment and attract more foreign investors, Vietnam needs to keep to with WTO commitments timetable. Any delay can affect investor confidence. BBGV want to see Vietnam progress in retail and telecom sectors. Additionally, the UK always supports Vietnam’s efforts to address such persistent issues as poor infrastructure and public-private partnership (PPP) expertise. The UK Embassy is hosting a seminar on PPP on October 11 for British companies and representatives of Vietnamese ministries, provinces and economic sectors.

 

Mr Patrick Regis added the UK Investment and Trade Promotion Agency has a Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) with Vietnam which has met three times since September 2008. The UK hails Vietnam's consensus with the bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the EU.