Strategies for new FDI trends in Vietnam

ABO/VNA - The 'new normal' is accelerating the trend of foreign investors relocating production lines to Vietnam, according to Bizlive.

Alex Feldman, chair of USABC (US-ASEAN Business Council), said that US businesses believe that in the time to come, investors will pay more attention to the ability of governments to cope with external shocks when considering their investments.

Vietnam’s success in fighting against the epidemic has created positive influence on foreign investors’ decisions.

USABC, a representative of 160 member businesses, praised the investment opportunities in ASEAN and Vietnam, emphasizing the important position of ASEAN in the Indo-Pacific region, and ASEAN becoming the 4th largest trading partner and No 1 investment destination in the region for the US.

A report of VNDirect Securities released recently cited foreign sources as showing that Google and Microsoft are relocating some production lines from China to Vietnam and Thailand.

The two giant technology firms are considering selling Pixel4A, Pixel5 and Surface computers in Vietnam.

Regarding Japanese investors, a JETRO survey found that 63 percent of Japanese operational businesses want to scale up investments in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government has started its program on supporting Japanese enterprises to relocate their factories out of China.

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on July 17 announced that 57 enterprises would receive support to move to Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.

Praising Vietnam’s achievements in fighting Covid-19, Okabe Daisuke from the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam said with the high risk management capability, Vietnam’s economy has begun recovering while other countries are still busy struggling with Covid-19.

Nikkei reported that the Japanese government would prop up 70 billion yen to Japanese enterprises in this campaign. Prior to that, it also provided grants of 243.5 billion last April to help Japanese enterprises ease the reliance on China.

As the US-China relationship has become worse and the trade war escalated, there have been many discussions in the US and other countries on how to ease reliance on Chinese economy and the companies from China.

Vietnam has taken actions to attract foreign investors in the new FDI reorientation trend. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has set up a taskforce in charge of promoting FDI.

Vietnam has resumed some commercial air routes, creating favorable conditions for foreign specialists to enter Vietnam to implement investment projects.

Vietnam has also had discussions with the US and regional countries about economic cooperation initiatives, including the Economic Prosperity Network.

Nguyen Duc Thanh, an economist, said Vietnam needs a new strategy on attracting FDI that will fit the changes in the world economic order in the next 30 years.

(Source: VNA)