With its politically stable and safe environment and a strategic location with access to Southeast Asia, Vietnam is considered to be a favourable destination for British businesses looking to invest in the country, said a senior official from London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Peter Bishop, deputy chief executive of LCCI was telling British businessmen about the reasons why Vietnam would be chosen as an investment place at a meeting hosted by his chamber in London on November 3.

Representatives of 28 Vietnamese companies operating in a wide range of areas including petroleum, chemicals, construction, plastic packaging and garments joined 30 British businesses at the event.

Vietnam’s economy grew 5.3 percent in 2009, making it one of the top expanding economies in the region despite the global financial crisis and “Its economy is predicted to carry on at a very decent level for years to come.”

“The country has got an educated, vibrant and young workforce,” Peter said, adding that “LCCI is keen to introduce businesses to come to countries which are thriving, prosperous, which are keen to do business on global stage. Vietnam fits that field perfectly.”

“The economy and political system in Vietnam provide a stable matrix for businesses to investigate the market,” Peter noted.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the UK Tran Quang Hoan told the meeting that this was not the first time LCCI organised such the event but it was the first one held after a joint declaration was signed in early September this year to establish a strategic partnership between Vietnam and the UK. The Ambassador said that under the joint declaration, the two governments agreed to make efforts to increase two-way trade value to 4 billion USD and foreign direct investment from Britain to 3 billion USD by 2013.
According to Vietnamese Commercial Counsellor to the UK An The Dung, two-way trade between the two countries increased 8 percent, reaching over 2.2 billion USD last year. The UK mainly imported garments, footwear, wood furniture, rice, coffee, cashew nuts, seafood and plastic products from Vietnam.

The British companies invested 1.5 billion USD in projects in Vietnam, making the UK one of the largest EU investors in the country, the counsellor said and named some of businesses which have been doing business successfully in Vietnam including BP, Shell, Glaxo Smith, Prudential, HSBC and Unilever.

“This will be a good opportunity for British investors to look for partners today as the Vietnamese delegation represent a wide range of sectors and businesses come from various localities throughout the countries,” Dung said.

Peter Bishop said a number of activities would be taken to help businesses to take investment chances. He said these included “hosting and organising more meetings like this, making people more aware of the opportunities in Vienam by publishing stories about this event in our magazine and taking a delegation of interested businesses to Vietnam next year”./.