Vietnam, U.K. Sign US$4Bln Deals during PM Dung's Landmark Visit

Vietnamese and the U.K. businesses inked deals worth US$4 billion at the Vietnam-U.K. Business Forum Wednesday [March 5] in the presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

 

The deals included a US$1 billion bauxite ore exploration deal between Vietnam Coal and Minerals Corporation and BHP Billion Aluminium, a contract reached between Vietnam’s Saigon Investment group and the U.K.’s International Power to build a 1,200-megawatt thermal power plant at a total cost of US$1.5 billion in central Vietnam, a US$200 million memorandum of understanding between Vietnam National Shipping Lines and Standard Chartered Bank.

 

“Vietnam will create favorable conditions for U.K. investors to invest in,” Mr. Dung told 500 leading Vietnamese and British companies.

 

PM Dung and the host counterpart Gordon Brown agreed to boost bilateral cooperation in a wide range of areas from politics, diplomacy, pursuit of the Millennium Development Golds, economics, trade, investment, education and training, illegal migration.

 

The two prime ministers issued a joint statement on multi-faceted cooperation in the coming time.

 

Bilateral trade between Vietnam and the U.K. reached US$1.7 billion last year, up 20 per cent on year, and the U.K. is among the EU’s largest investors in Vietnam with FDI of US$1.5 billion. Vietnam is one among the U.K.’s 17 prioritized markets in the world.

 

Andrew Cahn, the chairman of the U.K.’s trade and investment council highly valued a potential and dynamics of Vietnam, thanked the government of Vietnam to give a nod to HSBC and Standard Chartered to open 100 per cent foreign invested branches in Vietnam. (Government of Vietnam’s Website, VNS)