At the meeting, the Vietnamese Prime Minister confirmed: “Vietnam has successfully transformed from a planned economy to a market economy. Today, Vietnam is a market economy, a member of the World Trade Organization and a dynamic and positive member of the international community”.

Continuing, he said that as Vietnam has come a long way from the poverty stricken nation in the 1980’s, it is now a developing country with low per capita income and is facing great challenges like poor market effectiveness and competitiveness, infrastructure weaknesses and a shortage of qualified human resources, etc.

Also at the meeting, representatives of globally prestigious economic groups like GE, Nokia Siemens Networks and Tata Steel asserted their views on Vietnam strengths and weaknesses; the latter of which they felt was most affected by insufficient infrastructure.

According to Stuart Dean, GE’s Southeast Asian President, to maintain rapid economic growth, Vietnam needs to develop infrastructure commensurate with economic growth. He noted that, to ensure economic growth of 9% a year, the energy sector must have a growth rate of 15% a year. He also posed a question regarding the details of Vietnam’s infrastructure development plan.

Christian Fredrikson, Director of Nokia Siemens Networks in the Asia – Pacific region, shared his concerns regarding the development of a broadband network in Vietnam.

Concurrently, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the Vietnamese Government is well aware of the role of infrastructure and human resources in luring foreign investors and if the country doesn’t invest in these fields, it will becoming less attractive.

He informed investors about the implementation process of various technological infrastructure projects, ranging from transportation to power and telecom.

He emphasized that in solving the two aforementioned issues, Vietnam’s intention is for the Government as well as both domestic and foreign investors to invest in infrastructure. The equitization process allows the market to valuate enterprises and includes listing on the official bourse. The government is considering listing some Vietnamese companies on overseas stock markets.

The Prime Minister stressed that Vietnam’s equitization policy is firm and effective. Regulations that restrict the foreign investors ownership is a necessary step to ensure the stability and sustainability of the Vietnamese economy as well as investors’ business.

Equitization of State-owned enterprises (SMEs) was another major topic at the meeting. International speakers wondered why Vietnam has slowed and delayed their equitization plans. They also asked whether SMEs lobbied for the holdup?

The Vietnamese Prime Minister asserted that equitization is being sped up. The country’s target is to equitise all SMEs by 2010.

According to Kamlesh Patel, representative of Nokia Siemens Networks, investors attending this meeting can hear how the Vietnamese government responds to their questions and they can then make appropriate and informed business decisions.

Indronil Sengupta, Executive manager of Tata in Southeast Asia, said the Vietnamese Prime Minister satisfied investors. He added that Vietnam is a sought after destination of Indian businesses due to various reasons, mostly sound policies - a conclusion based on a six-month survey.

“The Vietnamese Prime Minister proved his understanding of the situation and he pointed out priorities and the implementation roadmap. We can solve problems that we understand and if we have a plan of action. Your Prime Minister provided us with the above, as well as peace of mine. We strongly believe that Vietnam will work out the kinks,” said Dhep Vongvanic, Executive Manager of SCG, a Thai company operating domestically.

Contrarily, Minister of Finance Vu Van Ninh didn’t wasn’t as lauded for his presentation. One foreign businessman said the Minister didn’t seem committed enough to solving macro-economic problems like inflation.

That same evening, local and foreign investors discussed issues related to real estate, the credit crunch, etc.

Today, the Ministers of Planning and Investment, Industry and Trade, Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Culture – Sports – Tourism and the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam will meet with investors to discuss similar issues.

Source: VietnamNet