Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Vu Tien Loc has said he hopes US-invested firms will pioneer in generating links between the foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic sectors in Vietnam.

Scene at the Vietnam-US business summit (Photo: baodautu.vn)

According to Loc, FDI enterprises invest in production in Vietnam, but import most of their materials and spare parts rather than purchasing from domestic firms. They use Vietnamese labourers and take advantage of the country’s available resources.

Vietnam is at the threshold of new investment structure and trade development toward sustainability as well as higher quality and value added. The US is one of the top partners of Vietnam in such progress, Loc stressed.

The bilateral trade increased by 133 times from 450 million USD in 1994, when the US lifted its trade embargo against Vietnam, to more than 60 billion USD in 2018. Last year, Vietnamese exports and imports to the US were recorded at 47.52 billion USD and 12.75 billion USD, up five and eight times annually, respectively.

As of March 31, the US invested a total of 9.15 billion USD in Vietnam, ranking 11th among the foreign investors in the country. Vietnamese and US enterprises have so far worked together to launch projects in processing – manufacturing, clean energy, aviation, health and medicine.

Charles Freeman, senior vice president for Asia at the US Chamber of Commerce, said the agency has drafted a series of recommendations to boosting Vietnam – US trade based on their Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and other specific agreements in digital economy, customs – trade facilitation, and infrastructure, among others. 

Earlier, the Vietnam-US business summit, the third of its kind, took place on May 10, attracting representatives of 250 businesses from both countries, including Exxon Mobil, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Google, Facebook, Paypal, and Visa. The event marked 25 years of bilateral trade-investment relations.