Just two decades ago, the USforeign direct investment (FDI) flow to Vietnam was non-existent.Several US multi-national conglomerates, though they considered Vietnam apromising market, had to do business indirectly through a thirdcountry.
After US President Bill Clintondeclared a full lift of the embargo on Vietnam on July 12, 1995 and thebilateral trade agreement was signed in 2000, US inflows into Vietnamhave come in droves.
Giants operating in beverages,information technology, software, automobiles and energy such asCoca-Cola, PepsiCo, P&G, IBM, Cargill, Microsoft, Ford, Chevron andUPS, one after another, injected huge amounts of capital into Vietnamand reaped successes.
Globally popular brands Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been taking the beverage market by storm over the past 20 years.
P&G has increased their investment three-fold in Vietnam since1995 and recently broke ground a factory last March, which will churnout Gillette razors for export across Asia.
Microsoft owns a mobile phone manufacturing plant worth over 300 million USD in the northern province of Bac Ninh.
Chipmaker Intel, after relocating its Costa Rica manufacturingoperations to Vietnam, is also considering moving its Malaysianmain-board and microprocessor factories to Vietnam and other countries.
US investments are catapulting Vietnam into a technology investment destination.
As of this May, the US had 742 projects valued at over 11 billion USDin Vietnam, ranking seventh of 101 investors in the country.
Sitting down with a reporter from Cong Thuong (Industry & Trade)newspaper, Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce Gaurav Guptasaid the Vietnamese government should continue regulatory reform andimproving business climate and workforce quality.
US firms valued the Vietnamese Government’s efforts to control exchangerates, increase gross domestic product and improve policies, sayingcontinued progress in these fields will fuel further US FDI inflows toVietnam.-VNA