Many big contracts with total value of US$4.5 billion are expected to be signed between enterprises of Vietnam and the US during the first visit by a Vietnamese head of State, local media reports.
Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet, his wife, and around 120 businesses operating in finance and banking, high-tech fields, aviation, garment, and aquaculture left Hanoi for New York today June 18. The visit aims to boost Vietnam’s export to the US and lure more US investment into the booming Southeast Asian nation.
Among these contracts, Vietnam Airlines plans to sign a contract with the US’s Boeing group to purchase aircraft, while the Hanoi Securities Trading Center hopes to win a contract with Nasdaq and the Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center will seek partnership with The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
President Triet will also hold talks with the president of General Electrics, which wants to build a factory in Vietnam.
Dang Thanh Tam, the CEO of SaigonTel, who is accompanying Triet, said US businesses are very interested in Vietnam’s financial and securities markets.
During Triet’s visit, Vietnam and the US will organize three trade and investment promotion conferences in New York, Sanfrancisco and California. They also plans to officially ink the bilateral trade and investment framework agreement (TIFA), which helps expand trade and investment ties and pay the way for the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in the future.
According to Head of the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Department Phan Huu Thang, the US - the world biggest capital exporter- is a big potential investor of Vietnam.
As at mid-May of this year, the US has had 325 investment projects with total registered capital of $2.3 billion in Vietnam, accounting for 4.4 per cent of the total foreign direct investment project and 3.5 per cent in term of capital, and ranking eighth among 77 countries and territories in the world investing in Vietnam.
Taking into account the US investment via a third country, the figure will be 396 projects worth over $4.7 billion, standing at sixth position, according to the latest statistics of the ministry.
Vietnam now targets to attract investment from the US’s transnational groups to produce high-quality goods for export and build research centers to serve Vietnam’s human resource training, Thang told reporters of Vietnam’s vnexpress.net. (Vnexpress Online)
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