“Meet Vietnam” – Good Chance to Promote Vietnam-U.S Bilateral Relations

Vietnam is the first of a series of activities to expand external economic relations and promote the image of Vietnam in San Francisco City, California, USA. This event is held by the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in coordination with related ministries, branches and localities on November 15 and 16 in San Francisco.

“Meet Vietnam” is aimed to help politicians, businessmen and people in California to know more about the land, the people and the economic development potentialities in Vietnam; promote multifaceted relations between Vietnam and California, especially in economy, trade, investment, education, science and technology; create conditions for Vietnamese people in California to approach real information and update the development in Vietnam, thus persuading overseas Vietnamese to contribute to the socioeconomic development of Vietnam.

“Meet Vietnam” is constituted by exhibitions, art performances, investment forums, information technology, education and other aspects.

The “Vietnam Culture Space” exhibition will open the event with a book exhibition on Vietnam reform (doi moi), an exhibition on Vietnamese contemporary arts, an exhibition on traditional musical instruments like monochord, đàn đáy (Vietnamese plucked lute with three strings), đàn Tơ-rưng, đàn Krong-put (musical instruments of central highlanders), and introduction of puppetry. Vietnamese traditional art programmes will be performed by the Vietnam Light Music Company.

Speaking at the “Meet Vietnam” Investment Forum held in San Francisco on Nov. 16, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong noted that Vietnam would offer favorable conditions for the U.S.’s investors.

Deputy PM Trong witnessed the signing of cooperation agreements between American firms and Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and Can Tho. The deals mostly focus on the areas of transport infrastructure, high-tech industry and e-payment services.

Trong said entering the Vietnamese market of nearly 87 million people will give U.S. investors more chances to penetrate into ASEAN which has population of over 600 million and boasts great potentials.

He added that Vietnam, listed among 20 most attracting software outsourcing countries worldwide, will be a promising destination for high-tech firms from the U.S.

On the same day, Deputy PM Trong chaired a Vietnam’s education conference in the U.S. city. He called on U.S. universities, schools, investors and the Vietnamese community in the U.S. to offer assistances for the development of the Vietnamese education sector.

Vietnam regards information technology as a spearhead economic sector to make a shortcut to industrialisation and modernisation. Thus, a conference on information technology is also a focus at the Meet Vietnam, which will draw the attention of Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, the Vietnam Software Association and dozens of American software companies.

The conference on Vietnamese education is set to take place on November 16 with the participation of leaders and representatives of universities and colleges in California. The two sides will exchange the possibility of boosting cooperation in building international standard universities, training lecturers and exchanging syllabi.

Besides, “Meet Vietnam” will also include the aviation – travel cooperation conference held by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Vietnam Airlines. This event is expected to draw 100 guests.

The Meet Vietnam event is welcomed and actively supported by local authorities in the US. The event hosted by the Government of Vietnam, co-organised by the Consulate General of Vietnam in San Francisco and San Francisco Mayor’s Office of International Trade. US Ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Michalak, will also attend the Meet Vietnam event. The California – Asia Business Council and the Education and Training Export Consortium (ETEC) are partners in California.

ITA Group Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), Vietnam Airlines, Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) and Saigon Invest Group (SGI) are the main sponsors for this event. The official website of the event is www.meetvietnam.com.vn

California has the largest gross domestic product (GDP) amongst American states. The economic cooperation plays important roles in Vietnam and California ties. The two-way trade revenue increases steadily. California mainly exports transporting equipment, processed foods, electronics products and chemicals to Vietnam. California is an important gateway for Vietnamese companies to approach the US and Latin American markets. Many California-based companies are doing business in Vietnam, including Levis Strauss, Calvin Klein, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Oracle and Sun Microsystems.

Posted by VBN on Nov 19 2009. Filed under 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