A series of Vietnam - United States cooperation documents were signed in the United States during the US visit by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. These were in backbone cooperation fields of the economy such as banking, aviation, oil and gas, and electricity, among others.
For example, Citibank will open a wholly owned subsidiary in Vietnam, marked by the granting of the Official Letter of Acceptance from State Bank of Vietnam Governor Nguyen Van Binh.
In the aviation sector, VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Company (VietJet Air) and Boeing Company signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in aircraft fleet development for Vietjet Air. Vietjet Air also inked an important partnership agreement on aerospace data design and production with Honeywell Aerospace to install auxiliary power units (APU) and avionics suite for its new aircraft to be delivered from now until 2017. The airline also signed an MOU with JPMorgan Chase in order to pave the way for the US bank to advise and arrange financing export credit agency (ECA) supported aircraft purchase and lease for Vietjet’s current and future contracts.
In the energy sector, Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and Murphy Oil Group signed an oil and gas cooperation agreement on business development in Vietnam, the United States and third countries. The Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) and General Electric (GE) inked a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in human resource development, corporate management, plant operation, service optimisation, grid stability improvement, wind power investment and development in Vietnam. Phu Cuong Group and the US Trade Development Agency signed a cooperation agreement under which the latter will finance wind power projects to Phu Cuong Group.
The US’ direct investment in Vietnam has reached US$11.1 billion since 1988, ranked seventh on the list of biggest foreign investors in the Southeast Asian nation. With above agreements, US funds are expected to increase sharply in the coming time.
It is worth mentioning foreign indirect investment (FII) - a very important investment source. Mr Vu Bang, Chairman of the State Securities Commission of Vietnam (SSC), said US investors are also keenly aware that Vietnam’s policies are more open than old ones, thus helping boost up capital flows into the Vietnamese stock market. For example, Decree 60/2015/ND-CP (which amends and supplements some articles of Decree 58/2012/ND-CP on detailed regulations and instructions for the enforcement of some articles of the Law on Securities), effective September 1, 2015, lifts up foreign ownership limit in Vietnamese companies. When Vietnam launched its stock market, its scale equalled to 0.2 percent of the country’s GDP 15 years ago but it now reaches 31 percent. The rapid growth of the market is a strong magnet to investors.
Mr Bang believed that small and medium-sized funds and private equity funds will make an advance, targeting at mergers and acquisitions (M&A) opportunities, bonds and equitisation opportunities. “If equitised companies float their shares on the stock market, the market capitalisation may reach 60 percent of GDP", he added. In a recent conference held in the US, US investors in Vietnam pointed out that, compared with some countries in the region such as Indonesia, Vietnam has a more favourable investment environment.
PV
Vietnamese
