For over a decade, the Representative of the Germany Industry and Commerce (GIC) in Vietnam (GIC), with two rep offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, has helped Vietnamese and German enterprises to set up business ties. The GIC network appears in more than 80 countries with 120 representative offices worldwide. The main purpose of these representative offices is to boost economic relations between Germany and countries GIC representative offices locate. In particular these offices help small and medium-sized enterprises penetrate the market and develop business relations. The typical activity of GIC, particularly in Vietnam, is to develop mutual economic ties with local countries, on the one hand, and help local enterprises to reach German market or cooperate with German firms, on the other hand. In addition, GIC’s representative office is an independent organisation, which serves the private economy.
In Vietnam, each year, GIC resolves hundreds of orders for enterprises in Germany and Vietnam. Over the past two years, the number of orders, especially trade consultancies and customer assistance activities, have again increased considerably. The demand for organising Vietnamese activities in Germany has also risen significantly. The main activity of GIC is to give advice to Vietnamese and German enterprises in all fields ranging from business brokerage, tax and fee information and company establishment consultancy to outside-court conflict resettlement. Trade fairs are one of GIC’s most important activities. The sending of Vietnamese exporters to commercial activities in Germany is considered an important part of GIC in polishing the image of Vietnamese enterprises in Germany. In nearly 10 years, the number of Vietnamese enterprises taking part in trade fairs in Germany has increased greatly. Vietnamese exporters are among the most active participators of trade fairs and they even take part in trade fairs that German enterprises organised in other nations. Another important job of the GIC is to publish the monthly “Vietnam Brief” bulletin, annual handbooks on Vietnam-Germany business relations and other special study documents related to Vietnam.
The economic ties between Vietnam and Germany have jumped to a new high within a decade. Germany is the 23rd largest foreign investor out of 67 countries investing in Vietnam. Germany has invested more than US$300 million here. The number of representative offices of German companies and organisations has also doubled. At the moment, about 150 Germany enterprises and organisations have 274 operational representative offices in Vietnam, and a much larger volume of agencies and representatives from Germany have appeared in Vietnam.
German companies have mainly invested in energy, automobile industry, infrastructure, telecommunication, the textile industry and engine manufacturing. Siemens, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Henkel and Metro are among popular trademarks in Vietnam. German companies also providing services such as architecture services of Gerkhan Marg& Partner Group, laundry of Dussmann Co. or precise information processing of GHP Co. German companies also send their products and services to Vietnam by various channels.
Mr. Wolfgang Ehmann, German economic representative in Vietnam, said: “The reform process in Vietnam is impressive and the upcoming entry to the World Trade Organisation will continue to speed up this process as well as consolidate the market economy structure in Vietnam.” Mr Ehmann said one of the important issues Vietnam should do is to improve the quality and increase the number of young workforces to reach its targets. He said: “Foreign investors especially appreciate Vietnamese human resources. This is one of many reasons for GIC to consider Vietnam a potential and emerging economy in Asia.”
Minh Nguyet
Vietnamese
