Foreign direct investment (FDI) pledges in Vietnam this year will likely exceed the high level of US$6.3 billion in 2005 as the country is welcoming a large influx of foreign investors, said Phan Huu Thang, head of the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).
In the first eight month of this year, fresh FDI capital hit US$4 billion, and the number is expected to climb to $5 billion by late September, Thang said, adding that the country can be absolutely optimistic to surpass the record level achieved last year as there are still three months to go before the year’s end.
In an attempt to draw more FDI, from now to the year-end, Vietnam is to deploy a range of important events including investment conferences in China’s Guangzhou province and in Australia in October, in Germany in November and particularly the APEC Investment Forum in Hanoi in November.
“I believe that Vietnam’s FDI picture in the future will be brighter when our country has gained greater confidence of the foreign investors, especially key partners namely Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the US and those from Europe,” he emphasized.
Notably, giant firms from the powerful economy of Japan are keeping their open eyes on Vietnam with ambitious plans. This can be clearly perceived at the recent the Joint Committee of Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative and Vietnam-Japan Business Forum, where the Japanese Government and investors expressed their special interest to enter Vietnam.
However, Thanh noted that, the country is facing with lots of challenges in FDI attraction, specifying that the lack of guiding decrees on investment and enterprises laws has discouraged overseas enterprises. Besides, escalating cost production has also caused difficulties for their businesses.
To improve the investment environment, it is also high time for Vietnam to pay due attention to human resources training to meet overseas companies’ requirement. On the other hand, it should make more efforts to deal with labor disputes in order to prevent strikes.
According to the official, the MPI also plans big investment promotion programs in 2007, when laws on enterprises and investments officially come into effect with new regulations.
The ministry is waiting for the Government’s approval to hold a big investment conference in April next year, aiming to draw attention from international groups.
In related news, Vietnam will open representative offices on investment promotion in the US, Japan and the European Union shortly. As planned, the first office will come into operation in early 2007.
Vietnam Economic Times, Vneconomy
Vietnamese
