French business delegation visits Vietnam
HANOI - A high-level delegation of French businessmen are in Vietnam for five-day visit to explore business and investment opportunities in the communist country.
The size of the delegation -- top executives from 35 French companies in various industries from railway transport and energy to banking and insurance -- reflects the interests of French companies in doing business with Vietnam, said Frederic Sanchez, chairman of industrial engineering company Fives Lille.
"Vietnam's economic reforms, its efforts to revise laws for accession of the World Trade Organization, have created favorable condition for French businesses to invest in Vietnam and export to Vietnam," he said.
Vietnam has completed accession negotiations with some WTO members including Japan, South Korea and China, but still has to finish talks with the United States among others in order to join the world trading body.
Sanchez said the delegation is looking for new business and investment opportunities while speeding up their existing projects in Vietnam. France is Vietnam's largest investor from the European Union and ranks sixth overall with investment of US$2.1 billion in 151 projects.
The projects discussed with Vietnamese officials include a tram project for Hanoi, the restoration of the Long Bien bridge, built by French colonialists at the turn of the last century, and several cement projects, he said.
The delegation met with Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and other senior government officials since they arrived in Hanoi on Tuesday.
They flew to southern Ho Chi Minh City later Wednesday to meet with government officials and business people.
The Associated Press - October 5, 2005.
France's EDF Vietnam power plant to open in November
HANOI - A new 700 megawatt power plant will start up in Vietnam next month, the first to be built there by Electricite de France, at an estimated cost of $400 million, the French embassy in Hanoi said on Wednesday.
Construction of the Phu My 2.2 gas-fired plant in the southern province of Ba Ria Vung Tau has been completed and will officially begin operation in November, said the embassy's trade and economic attache.
It will add about 6 percent to Vietnam's 11,000 MW of power capacity.
The project has an operational life of 20 years and will be handed by French state-owned EDF to the Vietnamese government under a build-operate-transfer contract signed in 1999.
Phu My 2.2 is part of the giant 3,600 megawatt Phu My complex, which takes natural gas from the Nam Con Son Basin in waters off southeastern Vietnam via a pipeline operated by British oil firm BP Plc .
The power plant will help the communist country offset a severe power crunch forecast for 2006 due to expected drought and soaring demand which has led Hanoi to plan for around 60 additional plants by 2020, officials have said.
Reuters - October 5, 2005.
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