Vietnam – France: A gateway to Asian – European Markets

“France will be Vietnam’s gateway in Europe and Vietnam will be France’s gateway in Southeast Asia if enterprises fulfill their commitments,” affirms Ms Anne-Marie, the French state secretary for foreign trade, at the forum of Vietnamese – French enterprises’ leaders with the topic “Vietnam – France, Asian – European partners” recently held in Hanoi on the occasion of French Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s official visit to Vietnam

Accompanying French PM is representatives of 40 leading corporations and enterprises of France in such areas as finance, energy, transportation, airline, and space, etc. From Vietnam’s side, leading corporations and enterprises attend this forum.

At the forum, 18 contracts and memorandums in areas of oil and gas, finance, banking, post and telecommunications, electricity, small satellite provision for observing natural resources and the environment, urban planning, and food, etc. with a committed capital totaling US$9.5 billion get signed. Among above contracts and memorandums, there are projects of great value like co-research agreement for Quang Trach 1 power plant project (in Quang Binh province) between France Electricity Corporation (EDF) and PetroVietnam with a total committed capital of US$1.5 billion. PetroVietnam is also the enterprise with biggest memorandums when it signs capital sponsor agreements with BNP Parisbas (US$2.5 billion) and Calyon bank (EUR1 billion in five years). Besides, some commercial banks of Vietnam like Agribank, Sacombank and OCB receive large commitments to sponsor and invest capital from big banks of France. Co-operative agreements are assessed to exert great impacts on the quantity and quality of capital investment from France into Vietnam in coming time.

According to French PM François Fillon, France takes a great interest in Vietnam, a very important strategic partner. “French enterprises need a bigger position in Vietnam market. I already see ideal co-operation for development of infrastructure system, metro system and project to provide satellites for observing natural resources and the environment, etc. between the two nations. Those are good signals but not enough. I already think of projects related to sustainable development, environment protection in areas of infrastructural development, gas emission, and urban planning amongst enterprises of France and Vietnam.,” states French PM. According to him, in order for these co-operative opportunities to become true, it is necessary that enterprises of the two nations be more active in taking full advantage of opportunities and business conditions so as to overcome the economic crisis. Accordingly, the senior commission for France – Vietnam economics development needs reforming to help enterprises of the two countries push co-operation and investment.

Deputy PM of Vietnam, Mr Nguyen Sinh Hung, affirms that 2010 is the year in which Vietnam’s economy will recover quickly. This is also the time when Vietnam is going to enter the phase of implementing the socio-economic development strategy 2010-2011 with an aim to become a nation with a modern industry. “Vietnamese government is willing to provide a favourable environment for foreign investors operating and implementing investment plans in Vietnam. As such, French enterprises should increase their presence in Vietnam,” says Mr Hung.

However, despite high appraisals for its business and investment environment, Vietnam market still has difficulties, such as high land rental fee and scarce of human resources. Mr Pascal Billaud, General Director of Big C, says that with large population and high GDP growth, Vietnam has been a potential market for French retailers. However, according to him, what Big C finds difficult when operating in Vietnam is the too high land rental fee.

Mr Nicolas Poirot, Air Liquide’s General Director, states that “Our company has been operating in Vietnam for many years. Vietnam’s investment environment is quite favourable, but we face lots of difficulties in seeking for personnel. We always lack medium-ranking managers. Vietnam has a good force of multi-skilled workers. High-ranking managers are also available but medium-ranking ones are lacked.” This is an issue needed to be paid attention to in Vietnam’s training process.

As assessed by French enterprises, if Vietnam can solve above drawbacks, foreign investment attraction and investment efficiency in Vietnam will be much higher.

Posted by VBN on Nov 21 2009. Filed under HEADLINES, Int'l Cooperation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry