US firms bullish about Vietnam's economy
HANOI - The United States is optimistic about Vietnam's economic prospects, said US Ambassador Michael Marine at the Club for International Economic and Cultural Exchange on July 28. Marine's comment reflected a recent survey of US businesses conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce, which showed that 77 per cent of the firms surveyed believed the Vietnamese economy would show significant improvement, with 82 per cent expecting profits to grow in 2005.
Ambassador Marine said 2005 marked a key point in the two nations' history, being the 30th anniversary of the war's end, the tenth anniversary of the normalisation of bilateral relations, and the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA).
According to the Ambassador, since the BTA took effect in December 2000 two-way trade had tripled, exceeding US$6.4 billion last year. The US was now Vietnam's largest export market, purchasing one-fifth of all Vietnamese exports. Similarly, US exports to Vietnam had increased by 250 per cent in the past three years.
Investment was another reason for optimism in US-Vietnam relations, he added. US investment in Vietnam now totals $2.6 billion, and last year US firms were the largest foreign investors in terms of implemented capital, providing $531 million.
"American companies are increasingly interested in investing in Vietnam, in part because labour costs in some sectors here are 30 per cent less than those currently found in southern China," the US diplomat stressed.
However, he said, corruption, a lack of uniformity and consistency in Government policies, the absence of a clear roadmap for investment, poor infrastructure and intellectual property violations were all challenges for Vietnam's economy as well as the bilateral relationship.
Vietnam News Agency - August 01, 2005.
Vietnam's WTO quest backed by U.S. envoy
VIENTIANE - The United States is eager to see Vietnam join the World Trade Organization, though work remains to be done, a senior American diplomat said Friday. Vietnam has been revising a series of laws to meet the requirements with a goal of joining the WTO by the end of this year.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said the U.S. government was working closely with Hanoi to achieve that goal.
"We'd like to have a stronger relationship with Vietnam on a whole host of issues," said Zoellick, in the Laotian capital of Vientiane for an annual regional security forum.
Vietnam has concluded bilateral negotiations with the EU, Japan, South Korea and China and still has to conclude negotiations with the United States and all other members of the world trade rules-making body.
"We want to try to get Vietnam into the WTO as soon as we can," Zoellick said. "I can't get into the predictive game of when that will be, but there's still more work to do."
"The key question is whether the leadership of the country is committed to the process and I think Vietnam is," he said.
The Associated Press - July 29, 2005.
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