“France Wishes to Accompany Vietnam on Its Way to Economic Success”

France and Vietnam have been connected for a long-time by strong cultural and political ties. The current context of intense worldwide commercial competition is a challenge for France to raise its level of market share. Nevertheless, France’s economic and commercial presence is strong. In 2010, bilateral trade between France and Vietnam grew and came close to 2 billion Euros. Mainly driven by the aeronautics and pharmaceutical industries, our bilateral trade increased by almost 20 percent and I am confident that this trend will be confirmed over the coming years. It is true that much more can be done to upgrade our trade relations in the near future.

 

France wishes to accompany Vietnam on its way to economic success. As the 1^st European contributor to public aid, France is ready to keep supporting Vietnam’s socio-economic development by offering its expertise and undeniable technological know-how.

 

As far as the business community is concerned, French business enjoys a significant presence in Vietnam in many sectors. As French companies are well aware of Vietnam’s strong potential, each year, more of them make the choice to open a business and work with Vietnam.

 

If I have to select recent significant achievements to give you an idea about the Franco-Vietnamese economic relations, I would choose the signing in recent years of several contracts in areas of high technology (the launch of a telecommunications’ satellite, the supply of a micro-satellite of earth observation, the supply of equipment for telecommunication networks, etc.). France is therefore not only participating in economic development, but is also helping the growing technological capacity of Vietnam.

France, together with its companies, benefits from real experience in many sectors which will lead Vietnam’s future economic development. In regards to sustainable development challenges, our enterprises will be able to highlight and to share with Vietnam their expertise, technological know-how and ability to gather funding. Various sectors may develop partnerships with local companies: aeronautics and space, energy, defence, environment and urban infrastructure development. The services sector must not be left on the side: the development of tourism, retailing, banking and insurance companies mostly depends on further liberalization of the domestic market, which is in line with Vietnam’s WTO commitments. In this perspective, I congratulate Vietnam’s vast reforms and efforts to comply with these commitments, and I remain confident in the future of our trade relations.

At a time when Vietnam is entering the category of middle income countries, it is important to help address the challenges it's facing. For example, infrastructure projects are numerous. They have been funded so far by Official Development Assistance (ODA), but as this kind of financing is meant to decline over time, the use of Public Private Partnership (PPP) is now considered essential. Various events were organized on the French side to address this issue. As part of the French Week, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) hosted a conference on "Local communities and PPP”. France has a wide experience to share, especially in the area of utilities, where "gestion déléguée" (delegated management) may be appropriate for certain projects such as street lighting.

 

Climate change is a priority topic on the Embassy agenda as well. France will support Vietnam in setting ambitious renewable energy development targets. As Vietnam is facing an impressive increase in its domestic power demand, implementing strategies to promote energy efficiency principles and renewable energy development is not only a way to reduce green house gas emissions, but also a way to reinforce Vietnam’s economy’s resilience to external shocks.

 

France is also focusing on training and education, which are main fields of bilateral cooperation today. Our cooperation programs are particularly successful in the health sector. For instance, more than 2300 doctors have already studied in France. We also provide twelve different specific degrees in Vietnam, and more than 900 Vietnamese medical students sit these exams every year. In addition, every year we offer around fifty training periods – varying from a few months to a whole year – in French hospitals. In higher education, many French degrees can be taken here in Vietnam and this is the choice of hundreds of Vietnamese students every year. More than one thousand Vietnamese engineers have graduated within the French Engineer Training Programme, its degrees being as valuable in Vietnam as it is in France. More than one hundred French Universities are linked in one way or another with Vietnamese Universities and we support the development of mixed laboratories to boost research.

 

Today, one of our major programmes is to help the Vietnamese authorities build a new University of Science and Technology in Hanoi – Hoa Lac. We have been asked to help and assist in the foundation of this university and we have been working very hard for many months to meet this target. Approximately sixty French Universities, High Schools and Research Centres are ready to assist with the project, in particular in training Vietnamese students who will come back after their graduation (PhDs) to teach in this new university, and in giving lectures too, here in Vietnam. We are also trying to mobilize our biggest international companies to participate in this university, paving the way for a unique framework between academic formations and the private sector. Of course, the success of this project will be reached with the strong involvement of the Vietnamese authorities.

 

France is one of the main countries where Vietnamese students come for high level academic studies. More than one thousand students come every year to France and most of them come back to Vietnam, once they have taken their degrees. This is a valuable contribution to the development of Vietnam. Of course, the Vietnamese students who come to France have a very good knowledge of French, that’s why we try our best to support French language teaching in Vietnam at all levels. In this field, the French Cultural Institute in Hanoi provides French language training in addition to its purely cultural activities and cooperation programmes.

The French week in Vietnam was a great initiative that will boost French-Vietnamese economic and trade relations. It is important to preserve this dynamic in 2011. The great mobilization, from both sides, of business partners and government representatives, revealed that France wants to continue to invest in Vietnam and that Vietnam is willing to work with its French partners.

 

Almost 4000 people came to the Multi-sector Fair and to the Business Forum organized during the French week in Vietnam. This shows the great interest that potential Vietnamese partners have in working with our companies. Moreover, Mr Pierre Lellouche, French Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, on his first official visit to Vietnam, had a straightforward and comprehensive dialogue with his Vietnamese counterparts on strategic issues for the development of our economic and trade relations.

 

The Embassy will keep encouraging the French business community to develop local strategic partnerships and to come to Vietnam. Following the success of French Week, Ubifrance, the French public agency for foreign trade and the French trade commission in Vietnam, aims at bringing about 200 French companies to Vietnam in 2011. We intend to introduce these companies to the Vietnamese market and its many opportunities for commercial and industrial partnerships. Throughout the year, 20 business events, business delegations, symposiums, and 4 French pavilions in local exhibitions, will cover various sectors, according to Vietnamese requirements. Infrastructure will top the list with operations in urban transportation, water treatment and environment, airport and shipbuilding, followed by the IT sector with banking technology, media and telecom, and meteorology. Urbanism and construction supplies will be addressed during the VietArc exhibition in Ho Chi Minh City, and energy while participating to the Oil &Gas exhibition. Consumer goods will be also focused upon with three events related to French wine and gastronomy and one event linked with cosmetics and fashion.

 

It is important to continue the dialogue established between our respective authorities through the “High level steering Committee”. This institutional dialogue lays the foundation to develop new industrial partnerships, to ease trade and to expand mutual investments. The French Embassy in Vietnam will be very active in facilitating this dialogue, so that the next institutional meeting in Paris will result in concrete achievements for our business communities.