Plentiful Cooperation Opportunities for Vietnamese, US Businesses

In recent years, many large Vietnamese companies have made greater presence to the United States. This is actually a very hard but rewarding attempt.

 

The Vietnam Young Business Association, the EduViet Corporation, and the University of Hawaii (United States) have recently held an attention-catching workshop on investment cooperation opportunities in the United States in Hanoi.

 

Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, Deputy Director of the Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM), the United States is an attractive, diverse and demanding market. Americans say what they will do. This is transparent and clear. When investing in and cooperating with the United States, Vietnamese businesses need to pay attention to commercial issues, intellectual property rights, environment, labour standards, and social standards in the United States. Specially, they must clearly understand Vietnamese laws and international laws in countries they get involved in; otherwise, they will fail to avoid risks or take opportunities. Most Vietnamese businesses cannot foresee changes in Vietnamese, US and foreign laws and policies. Sometimes, they are absorbed in building business plans while forgetting trend surveys in countries they do business or start business cooperation. They will face disadvantages when they start up business.

 

Lawyer Do Trong Hai, President of BizLink Investment Advisory Company, said: “If Vietnamese businesses do not resort to the help of legal institutions, they will not know legal status, financial capacity and other issues of their partners. We lack experience in selecting or negotiating applicable laws in dispute settlement. These issues are usually ignored or disregarded by Vietnamese businesses but they are in fact very important to define loss or win.”

 

Common legal risks in investment and business in foreign countries are usually caused by Vietnamese enterprises’ lack of understanding of foreign laws and policies, international practices and bilateral agreements between nations. According to Mr Hai, to deal with this shortcoming, Vietnamese companies must improve their understanding of Vietnamese and foreign laws as well as international laws and practices; resort to the help of Vietnamese diplomatic agencies in foreign countries when they do business or invest in those countries.

 

Ms. Betty Brow, the Executive Vice President at the Bank of Hawaii, said: Vietnamese businesses can invest in US financial markets by purchasing government bonds, municipal bonds and corporate bonds, etc. However, when they invest in the United States, they must ascertain whether those financial institutions and banks are sustainable or not to cooperate and seek support for their projects and avoid risks. She said they can invest in real estate, trade, tourism, hotels, education, elderly healthcare, biotechnology and others in Hawaii.

 

After more than 10 years enacting the Vietnam - US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), Vietnamese and US businesses have more opportunities of cooperation. After one year this agreement took effect, the US became Vietnam’s top market. The US is not the largest FDI investor in Vietnam but if its investment via third countries is included, it is the largest. Currently, the US is easing monetary policies; thus a lot of US funds want to invest in entertainment industry.

 

Besides, the upcoming admission to the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement is compared to a “cannot miss” opportunity for Vietnam to strengthen connections with the US economy and other TPP members. Vietnam is now a full WTO member. Mr Thanh said Vietnam will have commitments to government procurement and tendering according to this mechanism. Perhaps, after the BTA or the WTO entry, this will be a strong force for Vietnam - US economic cooperation as well as business opportunities in trade, investment and financial services for Vietnamese and US businesses. This driving force is stronger than the BTA because it speeds up Vietnam’s broader and deeper integration with regions and agreements and brings forth greater commercial achievements since it opened for integration.