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

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Piaggio to build motorbike plant in Vietnam

HANOI - The Italian Piaggio Group will invest $30 million in developing a factory in Vietnam's northern Vinh Phuc province, local newspaper Vietnam News reported on Tuesday. The factory is expected to annually manufacture over 50,000 scooters branded Vespa, and release its first products by the end of 2009. When receiving Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Massimo D'Alema, in Hanoi capital on Monday, Vietnamese State President, Nguyen Minh Triet, said he was pleased at the opening of Piaggio's factory with the hope that many Italian businesses would follow suit, the report said. At a meeting between Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Pham Gia Khiem, and his visiting Italian counterpart also on Monday, the Italian official asserted that his country hoped to further cooperate with Vietnam in infrastructure development, food-processing, mechanics, tourism and cultural preservation.

Xinhua - October 10, 2007.


Piaggio lays first stone

HANOI - Piaggio is investing over 100 million euros in Vietnam and has begun building a factory for the production of Vespas, with a target output of 90,000 per year.

The announcement was made by group chairman Roberto Colaninno as he laid the first stone of the factory in the Vinh Phuc province. Alongside Colaninno was Foreign Affaire Minister Massimo D'Alema, on a visit to the South-East Asian country, whom the Piaggio manager thanked. "He is someone I consider a friend and that I respect as a great Italian statesman. It was not an easy task to support from Italy a company like Piaggio in the competition against Honda Yamaha," but "having got past the pessimism, the plan was very successful." The head of the Foreign Office underscored that the opening of the factory in a country which moves predominantly on two wheels is not only an industrial success but also "symbolic," giving way to an analogy with the Italian miracle symbolized by the Vespa.

Piaggio, said D'Alema, "is at the forefront in relation to other companies and sees Asia not as a threat but as an opportunity." "I have pledged to come back here when the first Vespa comes out of the factory," he said. For Piaggio Vietnam is a foothold in the South-East Asian market, as explained by Colaninno. The factory will be constructed over an area measuring 30 square metres, will have an output capacity of 100,000 Vespas and a target of 100,000 sco0oters in two years.

The factory in Vietnam, added Colaninno, is "the last step in a strategic plan to be present in the entire Asian market."

Agenzia Giornalistica Italia - October 9, 2007.