US Giants Eye Vietnam's Finance, Transport, Healthcare & Film

Representatives of 21 big US corporations expressed, during their talks with Ho Chi Minh City authorities on March 8, that they hope to invest in the financial field, transport infrastructure, healthcare services, and film production in Vietnam’s largest commercial hub.

 

Transportation and e-commerce giant FedEx hopes to expand its services in the city while Time Warner is seeking to build movie theaters and an amusement complex in Vietnam and GE group is keen on investing in the financial and training fields. GE hopes Vietnam will further open its financial market.

 

US investors expressed their support for Vietnam’s entry into the WTO before the APEC Summit 2006 event to be held in Hanoi in November.

 

They, however, asked Vietnam for attaching great importance to intellectual property right protection, further administrative reform, implementing e-governance, and issuing consistent policies for the auto industry, and opening-up the financial market as well as the oil and gas sector and trade and distribution fields.

 

Most of the US corporations, including ACE Group, AIG, Alticor, Anheuser-Busch, Boeing, Cargill, Citigroup, Diageo, FedEx, Ford, GE, GlaxoSmithKline, JHPIEGO, J. Ray McDermott, J.P. Morgan Chase, Oracle Corporation, Phillip Morris, Time Warner, Unisys, UPS, and United Technologies, have invested in or enjoy trade relations with Vietnam and now want to expand their operations in the country.

 

According to the chairman of the HCM City People’s Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan the city is calling for investment in urban transport infrastructure, tourism, banking and finance, and human resource training.

 

Before leaving HCM City for Hanoi to discuss Vietnam’s WTO accession bid and its investment climate, today the US delegation is in talks with leaders of the city’s Customs Department as well as Planning and Investment and Trade Services. 

 

By the end of 2005, The US had 260 valid projects with the total registered investment of over US$1,455 billion in Vietnam, excluding US investment in the country through investors of other countries and territories. In 2005, the US investors injected roughly US$147 million into 49 new FDI projects in Vietnam, while 13 existing US-invested projects increased by US$68 million.