A British trade official and an executive chairman told participants at abusiness briefing in London on September 4 that Vietnam is anattractive destination for investment and that the country is ripe forBritish trade and investment.
These two speakers wereDouglas Barnes, Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City and Director for UKTrade and Investment (UKTI) in Vietnam, and Paul Smith, ExecutiveChairman of Harvey Nash, a London-based company providing IT services,which has been doing business successfully in Vietnam for 12 years.
They briefed the British businesspeople about the Vietnamese market atthe conference which was held by the London Chamber of Commerce andIndustry for British firms in a prelude to a trade mission which thechamber is organising for those interested in the market to visit Hanoiand Ho Chi Minh City in November 12-16, this year.
More than 30 representatives from a wide range of companies attended the briefing.
According to the London Chamber of Commerce, Vietnam is rapidlybecoming the powerhouse of Southeast Asia, recording GDP growth of 6,4percent in 2010, making it one of the top expanding economies in theregion despite the global financial crisis.
The twospeakers highlighted key strengths of the Vietnamese market, including apolitically stable and safe environment; strategic location with accessto South East Asia, China and beyond and a growing population of87 million, which is young, dynamic, educated and pragmatic.
They also noted other favourable conditions such as a growing domesticmarket; a burgeoning middle-class with significant spending power;accession to the World Trade Organisation and a signed strategicpartnership agreement between the two countries to strengthen bilateralrelationship, including trade ties.
Douglas said otherpositive points of the Vietnamese market were that for three yearsrunning, British firms have ranked Vietnam as the top destinationoutside of the BRICs in which they would like to invest and that thecountry had long term growth (estimated the fastest in the world to2050) and that Vietnam is one of the UK’s 17 high growth markets.
Paul Smith, who works closely with UKTI to support UK businessesinto ASEAN region, will lead the mission as his local knowledge, networkand support will benefit the delegates.
At thebriefing, Paul enthusiastically spoke about Vietnam , introducing afew facts to tell the participants how “ Vietnam touches us every daylife” such as rice, pepper, catfish, shoes and coffee. He said helearns that Vietnam has just become number 1 coffee exporterworldwide, and that is a fantastic achievement of the country. He said:“Any time you go to Starbucks, Caffe Nero, think about Vietnam .”
Think about Vietnam when “Over 1 billion people receive and send G3calls using software developed in Vietnam (Alcatel-Lucent).Nearly a million people found jobs using software developed in Vietnamtoo (StepStone). By 2015, one in twelve microchips will be made inVietnam (Intel),” he said.
Paul said through hisknowledge, Vietnam had market opportunities in areas of ICT services andR&D; retail; construction/mining; manufacturing; energy;outsourcing; digital and media; financial services; education; andtourism and leisure.
Paul’s Harvey Nash now employs 4,500staff in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City offices, developssoftware applications, R&S and maintenance services for clients in33 countries world wide.
While appreciating his staff ashardworking, loyal, trustworthy, honest and highly-skilled, he alsowarned the participants about challenges they would face during doingbusiness in Vietnam . These included the inadequate of middlemanagement; low level corruption; infrastructure; regulation &legislation and consistency.
UK exports of goods and servicesto Vietnam in 2011 were 520 million pounds (around 820 million USD),an increase of 7,9 percent year on year while Vietnam ’s exports ofgoods and services to the UK were 1,75 billion pounds, a growth of33 percent.
The UK is the third largest EU investor inVietnam with 153 projects with a registered value of 2,7 billion USDby the end of the first quarter of this year.-VNA