Việt Nam and the United States look forward to significant opportunities for economic co-operation, especially in trade and investment, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Chí Dũng said this week. — Photo vovworld.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam and the United States look forward to significant opportunities for economic co-operation, especially in trade and investment, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Chí Dũng said this week.

He made the announcement during an investment promotion conference in Washington D.C., the United States capital, beginning Tuesday.

The conference attendees learned that the near future would be especially opportune for bilateral investment co-operation.

US companies alone currently have 820 projects in Việt Nam, with a total investment capital of about US$11 billion, and the United States ranks eighth among 115 countries and territories investing in Việt Nam.

Dũng told participants, including US authorities, policy scholars and entrepreneurs, besides representatives of ASEAN nations, that Việt Nam was taking drastic measures toward faster and more sustained development.

Considering enterprise the driving force for future development, Việt Nam is building a stimulative and creative government, which is shifting toward serving businesses instead of managing them.

The country is determined to speed up economic restructuring, renew growth models and enhance the productivity, efficiency and competitiveness of the economy.

It is also striving to complete legal frameworks and boost transparency for investors—so they feel secure about long-term operations—and create more advantageous conditions for them to take part in global value chains.

Dũng said the Vietnamese economy was opening more.

The country has signed 12 new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs), and it is expected to enter more FTAs in the future.

Việt Nam has  entered the ASEAN Economic Community, and this will provide investors with  access to the 600 million-people regional market.

Việt Nam and the United States are also members of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the biggest trade deal ever that is in the finalising process.

"The partnership is expected to facilitate collaboration between the two countries, promoting their advantages and boosting bilateral relations to a new high that is more profound, substantial and efficient,” Dũng said.

"Although the TPP approval process is facing certain obstacles, Việt Nam is resolutely pursuing innovation, integration and development to attract US investors," he said talking to about 150 representatives of the US business community.

Among the representatives were officials from Coca-Cola, Caterpillar and Mastercard, alongside ExxonMobil, United Technologies Corporation and the American Chamber of Commerce.

Before the conference, Dũng has worked with US trade representative Michael Froman, who said that the government of President Barack Obama would continue to urge the US Congress to ratify the TPP in the future.

US-ASEAN Business Council Vice President Marc Mealy told the Voice of Việt Nam that co-operation prospects between Việt Nam and the United States were positive.

Mealy said ASEAN had become more attractive to US companies due to dulling investment outlooks in other parts of the world and Vietnam’s ongoing foreward-looking reforms. 

Directions

Dũng told reporters that Việt Nam had three major directions to lure investments, especially from the United States: accelerating equitisation of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and merger and acquisition activities, encouraging start-ups and small- and medium-sized enterprises to develop, and fostering public-private partnership.

During working sessions with World Bank (WB) officials in his visit, Dũng said Việt Nam would continue to rationalise public investments, the banking system and SOEs.

In a context that Việt Nam would no longer receive concession loans from the WB’s International Development Association in a near future, as the country had reached a lower middle-income status, Dũng recommended that the WB assist Việt Nam in building strategies to attract foreign direct investment.

He also proposed that the WB help Việt Nam build master plans for development and support the country in technology transfer.

Alex van Trotsenburg, Vice President of Development Finance at the WB, said the WB was committed to close collaboration with the Vietnamese government and relevant agencies to extend support in Việt Nam. — VNS