Washington DC (VNA) – The People’s Committee of Vinh Phuc province has coordinated with the Vietnamese Embassy in the US and the US Chamber of Commerce (USCC) to organise a seminar in Washington DC to introduce investment cooperation chances in the northern locality of Vietnam.

The event on September 4 was attended by Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Ha Kim Ngoc, USCC Senior Vice President for Asia Charles Freeman, along with nearly 20 member businesses of the chamber, including some of the world’s leading enterprises.

Nguyen Van Tri, Vice Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of the People’s Committee of Vinh Phuc, informed participants about the province’s socio-economic development, potential and investment chances.

As of the end of July 2019, Vinh Phuc accommodated 362 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with total registered capital of over 4.8 billion USD from 17 countries and territories, ranking 19 out of the 63 provinces and centrally-run in Vietnam in FDI attraction.

At present, it is home to two processing – manufacturing projects worth 15.6 million USD invested by the US.

[Vinh Phuc betters business climate to lure investments]

Freeman said the USCC is the largest business organisation in the world, representing more than 3 million enterprises of different sizes and sectors, from stores and local chambers of commerce to leading trade associations and major groups in the US.

He highly valued Vinh Phuc’s investment achievements in the recent past and thanked the Vietnamese Embassy in the US and the province’s delegation for their activeness in investment promotion activities.

At the seminar, USCC members were provided with much information about the Vietnamese market, including Vinh Phuc, which would be useful for their investment and business expansion in the Southeast Asian nation.

Local authorities also fielded their questions about various issues such as incentive policies, investment support, labour, infrastructure, smart city building, e-commerce, and logistics.

In his speech, Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Ha Kim Ngoc described the seminar as a meaningful event for helping with investment promotion of Vietnam in general, and Vinh Phuc in particular.

He thanked USCC Senior Vice President for Asia Charles Freeman and his colleagues for supporting Vietnam and its localities to enhance economic, trade and investment relations between the two countries, as well as for organising US businesses’ trips to Vietnam.

According to him, the economies of Vietnam and the US are complementary to each other. To maintain fast growth, Vietnam has high demand for goods and high-tech services from the US like energy, airplanes, industrial machines, farm produce, and financial and digital services.

As US enterprises are seeking to diversify goods supply sources, markets and investment destinations, Vietnam is willing to be an important trade and investment partner of the US in the region, he noted.

He added that serving as Chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2020, Vietnam stands ready to coordinate with the US and ASEAN members to promote the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific and the US’ Free and Open Indo-Pacific strategy for the sake of peace, stability, cooperation and prosperous development in the region.

Also on September 4, the Vinh Phuc delegation coordinated with the Embassy of Vietnam and the US – ASEAN Business Council (USABC) to hold another seminar introducing investment opportunities in Vietnam and Vinh Phuc to the council’s members.

They highlighted the two countries’ trade and investment ties, along with the favourable business conditions in Vietnam and its locality.

Chairman of the Vinh Phuc People’s Committee Nguyen Van Tri emphasised that to become an industrial, service and tourism centre of Vietnam, the province will summon every resource, especially support from investors like US firms, for such fields as auto mechanics, electronics, support industries for the auto mechanics and electronics sectors, hi-tech agriculture, new material, renewable energy, tourism, education – training, health care, environmental treatment, and smart city building.

At the event, Vinh Phuc authorities and US firms also talked about the tariff exemption and reduction policy of Vietnam under free trade agreements, the training of high-quality labourers to meet businesses’ demand, the establishment of a support team for US investors, and incentives for investors./.
VNA