With an average gross domestic product growth rate of 7.5 % in the past 20 years, Vietnam’s performance is “more than impressive,” Louis Gallois, CEO of EADS, told foreign and local business executives.

Gallois said Viet Nam was part of a broader plan by EADS to target Asia, which is the world’s most promising and dynamic place because of its economic growth and market size. EADS boasts 43.3 billion euro in revenue last year.

Besides the commercial aircraft company Airbus, it runs the world’s biggest helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter and the world’s third biggest space company Astrium.

Gallois said EADS wanted to go global. “If we want to sell in a lot of countries, we have to invest in these countries.” Thanks to its investments in China like building an Airbus A320 assembly line there, EADS’s plane orders in China have increased.

Europe has been unable to churn out enough engineers to meet its aeronautic and space industry’s demand, while Asia can offer alternative human resources.

Expanding to Asia is also a way for EADS to escape the volatility of the euro-dollar exchange rate, he said. Whenever the euro gets stronger as at present, his company is in a less competitive position than its American rival as it sells in dollar and cover costs in euro.

In his first trip ever to Vietnam, Gallois met with the Government, students and its partner Vietnam Airlines to discuss cooperation in fields such as engineer training, technology transfer and airplane maintenance.

Gallois said the prospect of EADS outsourcing manufacturing and design to Viet Nam was still far ahead, but the company would try to work step by step towards this goal.