A number of Vietnamese businesses are expanding their activities in foreign markets that offer promise and less competition.

The Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group plans to invest 200 million USD in minerals and industrial crops in Cambodia .

Meanwhile, the Thu Duc Housing Development Joint Stock Company has spent 6 million USD to buy a number of villas and houses in the US during the downturn in its real estate market. The company has also joined its partner in Tashkent , Uzbekistan , to invest in building a complex in the country.

The Saigon Travel Service Company (Saigontourist) has announced that it has bought a 252-room hotel in San Francisco and that it will develop more hotels bearing Saigontourist trademark in Tokyo , Berlin , Hong Kong and Moscow .

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Department, Vietnamese businesses are expanding their investment activities in developed markets, including Japan , the US , the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Singapore , instead of pouring their capital into traditional markets like Laos , Cambodia and Russia .

A number of Vietnamese projects have expanded in scale and have focused on hi-tech industries such as aviation, banking, insurance and real estate.

Vietnamese businesses’ investment capital in 50 countries and territories reached a record of 7.2 billion USD in 2009./.