Pham Phu Ngoc Trai, chairman of Global Integration Business Consultants (GIBC), said Vietnamese businesses hope the U.S. will remain the biggest importer of Vietnam in the next 20 years.

 

Two-way trade between Vietnam and the U.S. increased five times from US$8.81 billion in 2006 to US$45 billion last year.

 

For HCMC alone, bilateral trade rose from US$5 billion in 2012 to US$8 billion in 2016.

 

“HCMC looks to continue receiving investments from the U.S. and expects the U.S. to soon become its top investor,” Le Thanh Liem, vice chairman of the city government, told the conference on business interaction between Vietnam and the U.S. after 2016, which was held by the Vietnam-U.S. Friendship Association in HCMC.

 

Regarding worries that Vietnam’s exports to the U.S. will fall after President-elect Donald Trump determined to implement policies to keep jobs for Americans, Tran Ngoc Chau, vice chairman of the association, said the U.S. will benefit when having its laborers focus on producing hi-tech products for export and importing low-cost products.

 

“Every day, 40 million American people wear Vietnamese shoes and clothes but Vietnam earns only US$15 billion from exporting apparel and leather-footwear to the U.S. a year, which equals to only 25% of what Chinese exporters get,” Chau said.

 

He said two-way trade between the two countries is expected at US$57 billion by 2020, including US$14 billion of U.S. exports to Vietnam.

 

Attending the event, experts said even if the U.S. withdraws from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Vietnamese Government and enterprises would try their best to keep up with regulations on global markets via other free trade agreements that the nation has signed.

 

Huynh The Du, academic director of the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program (FETP), said Trump is unpredictable but despite any changes, external policies of the U.S. have been and will be serving only the interests of Americans.

 

Therefore, in the long term, Vietnam should identify the exact benefits that the U.S. wants in different stages and contexts to have the right solutions for approaching its market.

 

U.S. Consul General in HCMC Mary Tarnowka said given whatever prospects of TPP, the U.S. will make effort to boost economic relations with Vietnam.

 

She said U.S. institutions like the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham Vietnam) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will encourage more American firms to invest in Vietnam in fields like sustainable development, energy security, and infrastructure.

 

According to data from the U.S. Consulate General, Vietnam stands sixth in terms of the number of students studying in the U.S. with more than 21,000 students.

 

The American Center in HCMC receives more than 80,000 Vietnamese people for free educational and cultural exchange programs a year. For this year, the number of Vietnamese people applying for visa to travel to or work in the U.S. is more than 100,000, double the figure recorded three years ago.