Scores of business contracts are expected to be signed between Vietnamese and US businesses in Washington DC during the visit of Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai to the US from June 19 to 25 this year.
The PM will be escorted by some 200 people, including 80 entrepreneurs. During the visit, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the US-Vietnam Trade Council and the US-ASEAN Trade Council will jointly organize the largest-ever Vietnam-US Business Forum in Washington DC. Other trade and investment activities will be carried out in New York, Boston and Seattle.
The list of businesses allowed to escort the PM is being finalized. Most of these businesses have already had initial talks with their US partners over the potential business contracts.
During the visit, Electricity of Vietnam, represented by general director Dao Van Hung, will meet with large firms such as Chevron Texaco, GE and Voith-Siemens to discuss the possibility of developing energy in Vietnam.
The Vietnam Post & Telecoms Corporation will hold talks with Motorola over the project on expanding Vietnam’s No.1 mobile phone network Vinaphone. It will also meet and invite Lockheed Martin to participate in the project in launching Vietnam’s first orbit satellite. The corporation will also sign contracts with the UPS Group.
“This is a precious opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to approach the US market,” said deputy director of the Vietnam Military Telecoms Co. (Viettel) Nguyen Manh Hung. Viettel will work with AT&T, KDI America and Sprint to sound out cooperation in providing VoIP and IDD services. The company is also expected to sign international telephone service provision contracts with MCI and Fusion Tel.
The Vietnam Rubber Corporation will sign five contracts to export US$12 million worth of latex and US$3.5 million worth of wooden products to US partners.
The Vietnam Construction Import Export Corporation (Vinaconex) will sign a contract with the US’s Innovative Stone, under which Vinaconex will export 40 containers of tiles worth US$1 million to the US firm every month. Vinaconex will also work with the Hok Planning Group over the projects on building the Bac An Khanh Urban Area and producing plastic pipes in Vietnam.
Vietnamese small and medium enterprises, which will be included in the delegation, hope to sign contracts to export their products to the US during this trip. The An Giang Agricultural Technical Service Co. plans to sign 14 contracts worth US$2.3 million to export processed fruits and vegetables. The Binh Dinh Import Export Co, may reach an agreement with US partners to export US$.5 million worth of wooden products and US$2 million worth of seafood.
Other firms are mulling over opening representative offices in the US during the trip. The Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) plans to open a rep office in New York and set up a money transfer company in California. The Tan Hung Co., Ltd. plans to open a rep office and establish a distribution network for its farm produce in the US. The Saigon General Import Export Co. will also open a rep office in the US, targeting to raise its stateside handicraft export revenues to US$3 million and garment export revenues to US$2 million a year.
Encouraging US investors to invest in Vietnam will also be part of the trip. The Vietnam Oil & Gas Corp. hopes to sign memorandums of understanding with US contractors operating in Vietnam to carry out exploration works at newly found oil fields.
The management authorities of the Dung Quat Economic Zone in central Vietnam will bring with them a list of 53 investment projects capitalized at some US$2 billion to introduce to US potential investors. The Industrial Park & Urban Area Investment Development Corp. expects to call on US investors to invest in 10 projects in its industrial parks in Dong Nai, Dong Thap and Vinh Phuc.
Many other investment projects worth between US$100-600 million on developing industrial parks, resorts and information technology are also expected to be signed between enterprises of the two countries.
Vietnam attracted 21 US investment projects with combined pledged investment of US$76 million in the first five months of this year, raising the total number of US investment projects in the country to 259 capitalized at US$2 billion.
Investment, Vietnamnet
Vietnamese
