An investment promotion conference themed “My Vietnam- your investment destination” was opened in New York City on July 1.

The four-day event is being jointly held by the Ministry of Finance, the State Securities Commission (SSC) and partners from the US with the aim of providing an effective dialogue channel to help US investors gain better understanding about Vietnam’s situation and the Vietnamese Government’s policies and reform resolution.

The conference also looks to strengthen trust in the Vietnamese market’s potential and contribute to building comprehensive partnership in the finance sector for common interest of the two countries.

Among participants at the event were Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung, Head of the permanent Vietnam delegation to the UN Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga, and Vice President-Policy of the US-ASEAN Business Council Marc Mealy, together with 150 representatives from Vietnamese and US enterprises which include top names such as the Vietnam National Coal and Minerals Industries Group (Vinacomin), the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), Citigroup, Blackstone, Warburg Pincus and Manulife Financial Group.

Speaking at the conference, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung underscored that this year, which marks the 20th anniversary of Vietnam-US ties, brings a golden chance to bolster cooperation between two nations, as they look back at both the great strides and shortcomings in bilateral ties.

The conference comprises of two sessions, with one dealing with Vietnam’s policies and feedbacks from US investors, while the other session is devoted to dialogues between enterprises and investors.

In the session on policy dialogue, the Vietnamese government demonstrated its appreciation and strong commitment to US enterprises and investors.

To date, the US is one of Vietnam’s largest economic-trade-investment partners. As of February this year, there were 729 US investment projects worth 11 billion USD in Vietnam, putting the US as the 7th largest foreign investor in the country. The average capital amount for each US project is around 15.35 million USD, higher than the average for all other foreign invested projects, which is standing at 14.3 million USD for each.

However, indirect investment flow from the US remains modest compared to US investors’ potential as well as to the Vietnamese market’s capital absorption capacity.-VNA