US businesses operating in Vietnam and their Vietnamese partners met in the southern province of Dong Nai on November 12 to seek investment collaboration opportunities.

The meeting was jointly held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the provincial People’s Committee and the US Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City .

Nguyen Chi Mai from the ministry’s Vietnam Competition Authority said that the Vietnamese Government always esteems US investors, reflected by its efforts to promote cooperation and facilitate US investment attraction.
As many as 25 leading US groups, which are in Top Fortune 500, have visited Vietnam to seek investment opportunities and many of them have decided to pour cash into the country, including Intel, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Citigroup, American Group and Pepsi-Cola.

According to Vice Chairman of the Dong Nai provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Phu Cuong, major US groups and companies’ investment as well as positive assessments of Vietnam’s business environment, potential and advantages have not only helped the country approach huge capital, advanced management experience and technology from the US, but also encouraged enterprises in other nations to invest in Vietnam.

Representatives from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the provincial People’s Committee and the US Consulate General also answered businesses’ queries relating to the import and export of goods from and to the US market.

Vietnamese enterprises expect the US to soon recognise Vietnam as a market economy, so that they can avoid damages caused by anti-subsidy and anti-dumping cases and take full advantage of US incentives on tariffs, they said.

The US now ranks seventh out of the 101 countries and territories investing in Vietnam , with 703 valid projects worth over 10.7 billion USD, mainly in the fields of services, industry, construction and real estate.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese investors are running 141 projects in the US with a combined capital of over 414 million USD.-VNA