PM Dung highlights cooperation opportunities in Vietnam

On December 11, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung attended the ASEAN-RoK CEO Summit as part of his activities in the Republic of Korea (RoK) for the commemorative summit marking the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-RoK Dialogue Relations.

The forum gave ASEAN and RoK leaders and entrepreneurs a chance to discuss the economic situation in Asia, analyze opportunities and challenges for the development of each country and the whole region as well as exchanging views on management, business and investment experience in key areas.

This is one of the practical activities in the framework of the commemorative summit marking the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-RoK Dialogue Relations, thus contributing to economic, trade and investment cooperation between the RoK and ASEAN countries.

PM Dung gave an overview of Vietnam’s important achievements in socio-economic development over the past nearly 30 years, noting that in 2010 Vietnam became a middle income country with total gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of US$2,000 this year.

Along with economic development, Vietnam has always paid attention to ensuring the welfare and social justice in combination with protecting the environment. The country has also finished the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ahead of schedule including poverty reduction, gender equality, universal education and health care.

During the period of global economic slowdown, but with the combined efforts of the Government and the support of the business community, Vietnam has maintained macroeconomic stability, strictly control inflation and keep an average economic growth rate of 5.6% per year while exports increased by 18% / year, foreign currency reserves have increased sharply.

Vietnam's economy in 2014 has showed signs of strong recovery with GDP growth expected to reach 6%. To date, more than 100 countries and territories have invested in more than 17,000 projects in Vietnam with a total investment of about US$250 billion.  As many as 100 groups including Korean giants in the list of 500 world leading groups have made foray in Vietnam.

“Being aware of the difficulties, challenges, limitations and weaknesses in the investment climate, the Government of Vietnam have regularly organized dialogues with investors to find proper solutions for ironing out snags.

The newly- adopted Laws on Investment and Enterprises will significantly improve business investment procedures, creating favorable conditions for enterprises to run stable and equitable investments in line with the market economy and international practice.” Dung stressed.

The Government leader also affirmed the Vietnam government is focusing on restructuring the economy associated with shifting the growth model and improving the efficiency and competitiveness which concentrate on restructuring investment ,banking and financial system, and State-owned Enterprises (SoES).

Vietnam is stepping up the equitization of SoES, principally groups, corporations and big banks which will open up a host of business and investment opportunities to the private sector, foreign investors involving in the purchase of shares and strategic partners in Vietnamese businesses.

At the same time, Vietnam is in need of hundreds of billions of dollars to invest in infrastructure development projects on electricity, renewable energy, urban transport, ports and airports. This is good opportunities for foreign companies to invest in infrastructure construction on the public - private partnership (PPP) model which is the strength of Korean investors.

Dung said, with the 8 signed FTAs,Vietnam is negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and  6 FTAs of high standards with the European Union (EU), the Customs Union of Russia- Kazakhstan- Belarus and with the RoK. The finalization of the Vietnam-RoK  FTA negotiations will provide tremendous opportunities for both Vietnamese and Korean businesses in the future.

PM Dung once again confirmed his appreciation for Korean investment projects in Vietnam, saying the Government of Vietnam will offer the best possible conditions for foreign investors and those from the RoK to run long-term and sustainable investment  in the country.

Vietnam always considers the success of foreign investors, including that of Korean firms to be its successful story, Dung noted.