Foreign investors are being offered many chances in Vietnam as the country is opening its economy. In your point of view, what are the fields that lure special attention from foreign investors?

High-tech industries, IT, biotic industries, and labour-intensive industries are the fields that the Vietnamese Government gives much priority. We hope to increase not only quantity but also quality of projects. There have been goods signs that big high-tech firms like Canon, Matsushita, Intel, etc have come to Vietnam for business and we hope that this trend will continue vigorously in the coming time.

Vietnam is negotiating for WTO accession and this provides investors with several opportunities. Vietnam gives many incentives to projects to develop socio-economic infrastructures so there will be many FDI projects in the fields of electricity, transport, housing, education and training, health care, etc....

Foreign investors will also pay attention to new areas open to them like telecoms, distribution, finance and banking, transport and tourism, etc....

What will the Government do to improve training for human resource in these fields?

Vietnam has always given top priority to education and training. The Government has allocated more budgets to this sector. Vietnam is also socializing education and training, mobilizing all resources both at home and from overseas for this field.

The Vietnamese Government is providing more incentives for foreign investors. How will foreign investors make use of these?

Foreign investors now can do business in more fields in Vietnam. However, it is hoped that they will choose the fields that the Vietnamese Government emphasizes for foreign investment.

Additionally, foreign firms can diversify their business models in Vietnam like direct investment such as limited company, Joint Stock Company, Joint Name Company, etc… or indirect investment. Vietnam is pushing up equitisation process, even in large firms in the fields of electricity, post and telecoms, banking, etc so foreign businesses can also invest by buying their shares.

Moreover, they can also invest by joining the stock market or investment funds, etc. Therefore, there are more and more chances for investors, both Vietnamese and foreign. Furthermore, it is stated in the Investment Law that all investors are equal in getting access to resources.

Can you be more specific about Vietnam’s plan to improve infrastructures to match development of investment?

The Government considers infrastructure development as the key factor for development of the country in the future. So, there are 3 issues lighted: First, Vietnam has been reviewing infrastructure planning. Second, more budget has been allocated to infrastructure development. And last, a list of around 100 large projects in the fields of transport, telecoms, etc are being prepared for calling for foreign investment. We will submit this to the Government for its approval soon.

Source: Thời báo Kinh tế Việt Nam, 16/3/2006