Vietnamese hunting for opportunities to make outward investments

Despite the global economic difficulties, Vietnamese enterprises still keep a close watch over the situation and hunt for new investment opportunities.

The idea of making outward investment has been prodded after Miraka, the milk material plant in New Zealand, worth 90 million dollars, where Vietnamese Vinamilk holds 19.3 percent of stakes, has become operational.

Having returned from the trip to survey the Brazilian and Cuban markets, Tran Kim Chung, Chair of CT Group, said on Dau tu that he can see great opportunities to access real estate and tourism projects in the countries.

Therefore, besides the plan to develop big shopping malls on advantageous positions in Vietnam, the group is moving ahead with the plan to build a supermarket in Yangon, Myanmar and a trade center to specialize in distributing Vietnamese goods in Osaka, Japan.

Cherishing the ambitious plan to create an FPT with full development in second markets, FPT’s General Director Truong Dinh Anh said FPT is considering “exporting the business and corporate governance model” to African countries, Cuba and North Korea.

Vietnamese telecom companies, which have been encouraged by the success of the Viettel, a colleague, have also got ready to march towards farer markets.

Successfully building the telecom network with the biggest infrastructure in Haiti just one year after the terrible earthquake catastrophe in the human history, Vietnamese have created a modern fairy tale in the American country.

Just one year after officially making investment in Haiti, on September 7, 2011, Natcom, where Viettel is holding the controlling stakes, launched the telecom network with the biggest infrastructure system in the country.

Buu Dien has reported that Natcom has had nearly 1000 BTS stations, or 30 percent higher than the number of the previous biggest mobile network, Digicel, which was obtained after six years of investment. Besides, 3000 km of fiber have been set up, reaching out to districts, which is 20 times higher than the fiber volume Haiti had prior to September 2011.

Commenting about the outward investments in the first eight months of 2011, Tu Minh Thien, Director of the HCM City Trade Promotion and Investment Center (ITPC), said that despite the economic difficulties, Vietnamese enterprises still have been trying to seek the opportunities to make investment in foreign countries.

“They are hunting for real estate in the US, carrying out forest product processing projects in Laos, or opening distribution centers in Cambodia,” he said. Most recently, ITPC has organized a trip for Vietnamese businessmen to Laos to promote the establishment of a trade center specializing in selling Vietnamese goods in Vientiane. Similar moves have also been made in Myanmar.

However, Thien said that he still cannot see very brilliant projects of Vietnamese enterprises in the “second markets”. He said that in the current circumstances, it is necessary for Vietnamese investors to appraise the investment opportunities and anticipate difficulties when approaching new markets.

Vietnamese investors have been trying to speed up the implementation of the project on the 42 million dollar Cho Ray-Phnom Penh hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and the project on growing sugar cane and making sugar, alcohol and power in Kratie province in Cambodia.

Don Lam, General Director of VinaCapital said VinaCapital has joined forces with two Vietnamese partners to invest 75 million dollars in the project. It is expected that the plant would become operational from the first quarter of 2012 with the capacity of 3500 tons per day. The products of the plant would be consumed in Cambodia and exported to the EU.

Meanwhile, the affair by Saigontourist of purchasing the 252-room hotel in San Francisco in the US has not been going smoothly. No agreement has been reached so far, which has been blamed on the unreasonable time of information exposition. Since the affair was made public too soon, the partner has been trying to push the prices up.

Tran Hung Viet, General Director of Saigontourist, said that Saigontourist is eyeing the projects in the US, Hong Kong and Japan, and that he is leaving for surveying the Lao market this market. However, Hung has declined to give details about the company’s investment plan.

Tags: Vietnamese hunting for opportunities to make outward investments