During adiscussion session at the Vietnam Business Summit 2020 held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) on the morning of November 12, the delegates said that Vietnam is facing many opportunities to receive a new investment wave.

Vietnam is one of the markets eyedby investors. Photo: Internet 

Vietnam has received three investment waves

Mr. Do Nhat Hoang, Director General of the Foreign Investment Department, Ministry of Planning and Investment, said that in the development process, Vietnam has received three investment waves. The first peak was in 1995 after the removal of the US embargo, the second peak was in 2008 when Vietnam joined the WTO and now, despite the pandemic, the graph of FDI investment is going up.

According to Mr. Do Nhat Hoang, the reason for Vietnam's high growth compared to other countries is that Vietnam has certain advantages and appropriate policies.

Specifically, Vietnam has political stability, rapid and sustainable growth, competitive costs and incentives, abundant human resources, potential market, deep integration into the world economy, reforming drastically and in the centralposition connecting the Chinese market with ASEAN countries and other countries.

Mr. Do Nhat Hoang said that although the Covid-19 pandemic has broken the supply chain, the US-China trade conflict is complicated while many other countries like Europe are not affected, investors diversified and restructured investment. Vietnam is one of the marketsconsidered by investors along with many other countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and India.

According to the Director of the Foreign Investment Department, many businesses have committed to invest tens of billions of dollars inVietnam.

Agreeing with the above views, Mr. Glenn Hughes, Chief Representative of Logos Group in Vietnam, said that Vietnam's investment attraction characteristics with foreign investors include many factors. It is thanks to the central location of Vietnam in ASEAN and in the world; the process of industrialization; domestic demand and Vietnam's preferences in attracting foreign investment.

Because of thisa combination, Mr. Glenn Hughes said that Vietnam could be ahead of other economies in attracting foreign investment. Vietnam's good control of the Covid-19 pandemic is creating confidence for investors.

Cooperation with both sides get benifits

Therefore, to welcome the new investment wave, experts said that Vietnam needs to prepare well for the needs and requirements of foreign investors.

According to Mr. Do Nhat Hoang, first of all, industrial zone land must be available because the capital inflow is mainly coming from industrial zones. The second is human resource training, skilled labor training, accelerating training according to orders of enterprises. Third, related to energy issues, there are many projects that have invested tens of billions of dollars in this field. The fourth is to promote supporting industries.

Last August, the Government issued a Resolution to promote supporting industries, but businesses themselves have to get ahead. Fifth, it is necessary to revise policies, many cumbersome procedures must be cut and there should bemore incentives.

Besides that, Mr. Le DuyHiep, Chairman of Vietnam Logistics Association, said that the logistics industry plays an important role in supply and commercial services, enhances the competitiveness of economy. Logistics facilities and infrastructure will contribute to attracting investment.

According to Mr. Hiep, in infrastructure such as seaports, airports and warehouses, we can completely meet them. In terms of software, although there hasbeen progress, the regulatory agencies need to further facilitate customs clearance and specialized inspection. In addition, new technologies are needed to meet the requirements of e-commerce, cold supply chains, automation in warehouse management as well as the urban logistics sectors that need further development.

However, experts at the conference agreed that the cooperation must be in the spirit of ‘Win – Win’, so Vietnam attracts investment but criteria of technology, environment must be chosen especially with commitments to bring Vietnamese businesses to the global value chain.