Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

HANOI – Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park in Hanoi has been operational for over a decade but it has only attracted 68 investment projects in that time and it is described as a ‘slow investment attraction’ by local experts.

Sixteen wind power projects are expected to be developed in the central province of Binh Thuan, where there is a profuse wind source and favorable conditions for wind power plant development. However, the projects remain on paper, because they are still awaiting capital.

Edwin Vanderbruggen, partner of VDB Loi Yangon and Nay Pyi Taw, analyses why Vietnam is well-positioned to benefit from the new Myanmar Foreign Investment Law.

Contrary to the bleak situation of domestic companies, many foreign direct investment (FDI) corporations have not only grown in term of invested capital but also overpower in some Vietnam’s key export sectors.

Hà Nội – Vietnamese businesses ploughed nearly US$1.3 billion into overseas investment in the first nine months of this year with 66 licences granted, according to Foreign Investment Agency.

Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) have set up 3500 businesses in Vietnam which have the total investment capital of eight billion dollars. However, the capital they have invested in Vietnam is just a small part of their financial capability.

Firms that want to purchase the Cuu Lengthy (Mekong) Delta region will probably be given preferential treatment within plan drafted through the Secretary of state for Planning and Investment.

Dinh Vu Industrial Zone, the biggest Belgian investment in Vietnam, will receive Prince Philippe of Belgium this week to inaugurate the zone's wastewater treatment plant during his visit to Vietnam together with 300 Belgian businesses operating in water and sewerage management, transport, port, logistics and healthcare.

The last quarter of the year has seen a significant fall in private equity investors' confidence in the Vietnamese economy, a recent report by audit advisory Grant Thornton Vietnam said.

Deputy prime minister Hoang Trung Hai said in Hanoi on Saturday that the Vietnamese government plans to adopt supportive policies to attract more investors in the agricultural sector.

A new bright era is on the horizon for the industrial sector in Vietnam as the country's effort to attract hi-tech foreign investment has taken off, according to consulting firm CB Richard Ellis (CBRE).

Not content with promotional programmes, discounts and flexible payments, some property investors in the country have gone so far as to give profit pledges to customers to improve home sales during the gloomy market.

Vietnam is still a potential destination market for foreign investors, though the country, like other neighbouring markets, saw trading activities subdued during the past six months, according a regional research released by CB Richard Ellis Vietnam

Vietnam may lose out to neighbouring competitors if this year's downtrend in foreign direct investment inflows is anything to go by.

Dang Le Nguyen Vu, the founder of Trung Nguyen, one of Vietnam's biggest coffee groups, has no shortage of ambition.