EU Investment in Vietnam To Skyrocket
EU investment in Vietnam will continue soaring, Deputy Ambassador and Charge d’affaires of the European Union Mission, Christoph Wiesner, told a conference held on September 8 in Hanoi to review 15 years of Vietnam-EU cooperation and to launch a cooperation program for 2006-2010.
Two-way trade was just several million US dollars in 1990 when Vietnam and the EU established diplomatic relations. However, the figure is expected to be about US$7 billion this year, making the EU the largest trade partner buying 22-24 percent of Vietnamese exports. EU companies have invested about US$7 billion in Vietnam through approximately 500 projects. In the first eight months of this year, the EU injected around US$700 million into the country. In this light, Mr. Christoph Wiesner believed that EU investment in Vietnam would climb rapidly in the years to come.
Though rapid development, there remain barriers hindering the bilateral relations. According to Mr. Christoph Wiesner, outstanding problems with the Vietnam-EU economic cooperation are associated with food hygiene and safety, anti-dumping, and improvement of the investment environment. The issue of food hygiene and safety has now been settled amicably. Goods subject to anti-dumping disputes make up just about 0.1 percent of the two-way trade. Vietnam has tried to create a good investment ambience to cope with the growing competitiveness of regional countries.
In 2006-2010, the EU will invest in two major areas in Vietnam, including reducing hunger and poverty and building capacity for globalization. To make this happen, the EU will help Vietnam develop health and education and integrate further into regional and international organizations. In the immediately future, the EU will assist Vietnam to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) and to solve post-WTO legal problems.
(Source: Sai Gon Giai Phong)
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