~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Vietnam PM pledges to improve investment environment

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has opened a conference in Hanoi examining Vietnam's role in the Asian economy and pledged to improve the country's foreign investment environment.

He told 700 businessmen, diplomats, academics and government officials from over 25 countries that Vietnam's first priority was the completion of the legal system and building of institutions of a socialist-oriented market economy. He said this would create an "equal, transparent and safe business environment for domestic and foreign investors to seize and benefit from investment opportunities in Vietnam".

Other topics to be discussed during the conference, which ends on Friday, include the future of Vietnam's transition to a market economy 17 years after reforms began and the implications of the US-Vietnam bilateral trade agreement.

Delegates will also examine the threat of terrorism in Southeast Asia, its effects on the regional economy and what ASEAN countries can do to minimise the fallout. Former top US diplomat Richard Holbrooke, Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile and Onk Keng Yong, secretary general of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) are among the speakers at the meet, which is being organised by the New York-headquartered Asia Society. Corporate participants include senior executives from American International Group, Boeing, LG Electronics, Morgan Stanley, PetroVietnam and Samsung.

Agence France Presse - March 06, 2003.