They were quoted by the Vietnam Investment Review newspaper’s special issue released at a conference held in Hanoi on January 24 to review foreign investment activities in Vietnam for the past 20 years.

Both Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Hanoi Adam Sitkoff and Chief Representative of the Hanoi-based Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) Kenjiro Ishiwata said that their member businesses are paying special importance to Vietnam.“ Vietnam’s strategic position in the region has brought Japanese investors in,” said JETRO Chief Representative. Meanwhile, AmCham Director Sitkoff said that many US businesses consider Vietnam the world’s most attractive emerging market.

World Bank Country Director Ajay Chhibber also admitted that more and more foreign companies consider Vietnam an attractive investment destination regionally due to its low cost, active reform and socio-political stability. As a result, the annual foreign direct investment (FDI) influx in Vietnam compared with its gross domestic product (GDP) is always high in Southeast Asia, he added.

Sharing the same opinion, General Director of the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency in Hanoi Kim Won Ho said that Vietnam has surpassed China to become an attractive investment destination for his country’s investors. Vietnam’s admission to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the ASEAN-RoK free trade agreement which became effective in June 2007 have helped “Vietnam become an extremely important market and our current top priority is to promote investment in Vietnam,” he affirmed.

These officials and executives also praised the Vietnamese Government for its efforts in implementing business and investment environment reform. “Vietnam could not have become a favourite destination for FDI unless the nation made its pledge for business environment improvement and FDI promotion,” WB Country Director Chhibber said. “Forty percent of FDI businesses in Vietnam are wholly foreign-invested enterprises, 37% are joint ventures and the remaining are business co-operation contracts,” he noted.

AmCham Director Sitkoff said that Vietnam’s implementation of measures to improve its business and investment environment and its amendments and supplements to its legal documents have contributed to protecting the country’s regulations and mechanisms and making them in line with the global standards. “These laws have laid a favourable foundation for business and investment activities and helped promote Vietnam’s socio-economic development,” he elaborated.

However, they also pointed out the nation’s shortcomings in attracting FDI such as poor infrastructural facilities, a lack of high skilled workers and a strongly subsidised industrial sector.

In order to maintain a sustainable growth rate, Director of the Asian Development Bank in Vietnam Ayumi Konishi suggested Vietnam further improve its investment environment, continue to finalise its macro-economic policy mechanism, conduct structural reform and invest in people.

He took the occasion to affirm that the “ADB has been actively supporting Vietnam in its development process and is committed to forming a good investment environment in all over Asia.”

The WB Country Director said that Vietnam’s implementation of its commitment in the WTO is a key factor for the nation to maintain its position as an attractive destination for FDI.

Source: VNA.