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Local companies signed with British counterparts seven agreements worth over US$3.9 billion in total in London Wednesday.
PM Nguyen Tan Dung (R) at a conference in London Wednesday where he vowed to create an environment conducive to foreign investors
The deals, which Chairman of the UK Trade and Investment Andrew Cahn said were “extraordinary” in terms of value, were part of the Vietnam-UK Business Forum organized to mark Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s first official visit to the UK
The conference brought together major companies from both sides to explore partnership opportunities.
Vietnam is listening
Dung said foreign investors’ concern over cumbersome procedures and human resources shortages were his government’s main concern.
The greatest difficulty Vietnam faces in training its people is a lack of funds, said Dung.
“From the family up to the state level, limited financial resources are our biggest challenge,” he said.
The Vietnamese PM called for more investment in education and training from British companies.
“It would benefit us as well as you, who would like to come to a country with capable human resources,” he said.
According to Dung, the British government has also pledged to train 500 Ph.D. candidates as well as 5,000 English teachers in Vietnam.
Dung said Vietnam would also strive to improve its people’s English skills, aiming to make English one of its “fortes” by 2020, Dung assured the conference.
Foreign investors should not be worried about Vietnam’s intellectual property laws either.
Dung said the country already had a comprehensive legal framework to protect intellectual rights.
“We are even considering pressing criminal charges against violators of intellectual property rights,” he said.
Other goals the country is striving to achieve, according to Dung, are to improve infrastructure, ensure social justice and democracy, and alleviate poverty.
He said that fighting corruption and creating a healthy investment environment were among his top goals.
At a conference last January in Hanoi, foreign investors also voiced their concerns that Vietnam’s infrastructure couldn’t keep pace with its rapidly expanding economy.
Britain is interested
Cahn said Vietnam was a “powerful business opportunity” which British investors should not miss.
With an amazing poverty reduction record – from around 70 percent in 1997 to just 20 percent 10 years after, Cahn was confident the country would successfully tackle any challenges it is facing as a World Trade Organization (WTO) member.
According to Cahn, British investors are very interested in Vietnam, with exports to the country increasing by 40 percent from 2006 to 2007.
The UK is also Vietnam’s 14th biggest foreign investor, with trade between the two countries reaching $2 billion and investment hitting $1.4 billion in 2007, according to Vietnam’s Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hung Phuc.
But the UK Trade and Investment as well as well-known British companies including HSBC and Harvey Nash said they were “ambitious for more,” with the over $3.9 billion deals just the beginning of what is hoped to be a new phase in the Vietnam-UK relationship.
