A strange market survey?

The trip by some big US economic groups to Vietnam some days ago has surprised many people, who have heard about the slow recovery of the US economy and the uncertainties Vietnam is facing.

Of the 21 US economic groups which sent representatives to Vietnam to seek investment opportunities, one can see some big names such as Chevron, Coca-Cola, Caterpillar and General Electric. Analysts have every reason to think that the big guys would continue pouring more capital into Vietnam to expand their business.

At the meeting with Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh, Stuart Dean, GE ASEAN Managing Director said GE is planning to scale up its business in Vietnam, expanding its operation into the healthcare sector.

Prior to that, in March 2012, GE declared the decision to increase the investment capital by two folds in 2012-2013 in order to expand the wind power turbine factory in Hai Phong City. At present, the GE’s factory is generating 600 local jobs, while the figure would rise to 1000 once the expanded factory becomes operational.

The senior executive of the US Group said that the open business opportunities in Vietnam are the main reasons leading to the GE’s decision to expand its investment scale in the country.

On July 10, in the presence of the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the US GE group signed with the Vietnamese Power Transmission Corporation a contract on providing equipment to the 500KV transmission line Pleiku (Gia Lai) – Phu Lam (HCM City), worth 16.5 million dollars.

The actions by the US economic groups show that they have been pursuing their long term investment plans in Vietnam.

Intel has reaped fruits from its investment project on the chip manufacturing factory in HCM City. In 2011 alone, the factory brought 462 million dollars worth of chip export turnover to the company.

Chevron is moving ahead with the project on cooperating with PetroVietnam to exploit gas at Block B. The group hopes it can wrap up the negotiations with PetroVietnam soon on the gas price. Chevron plans to bring more advanced technologies to Vietnam in an effort to kick off the operation soon.

Jabil, a member of AmCham, has invested 70 million dollars more to expand the factory in the HCM City Hi-tech Park, raising its total investment capital in Vietnam to 100 million dollars.

The new wave of US investment in Vietnam

On the occasion of the working visit to Vietnam by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a lot of the big names such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, Pepsico, P&G, Nike also came to explore more opportunities.

In fact, the US economic groups have been present in Vietnam already. Vietnamese government officials have predicted that the new wave of US investment to Vietnam would begin soon.

An official from the Ministry of Planning and Investment has said that the presence of the 21 leading groups – the members of the US-ASEAN Business Council in Vietnam could be seen as a signal of the wave.

A representative from FedEx said the group has put a high hope on the success of the negotiation rounds for TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership agreement), which is believed to serve as the catalyst to boost trade and investment.