High level business delegation from Vietnam in Sydney
Updated
Australia has been host to a high level diplomatic and business delegation from Vietnam the second in a month.
Presenter: Karon Snowdon
Speaker: Nguyen Phu Trong, President Vietnam National Assembly, Pham Gai Tuc, Secretary General Vietnam Chamber Commerce, Jack Tan, Chairman of Vietnam Emerging Capital
KARON SNOWDON: Vietnam is booming and showing few signs of trouble from the global credit squeeze from the US sub prime crisis.
Two decades of GDP growth running at an average 7 and a half per cent make it the second or third fastest in Asia.
The President of the National Assembly, Nguyen Phu Trong says the period has coincided with 20 years of reform.
As the patron of a 70 strong delegation of business leaders visiting Australia, he says now is the best time to invest in Vietnam.
NGUYEN PHU TRONG: I want to once again reaffirm that Australia is a very important partner of Vietnam. And Vietnam now stands ready to open our door wide for Australian business to work in Vietnam
KARON SNOWDON: Nyugen Phu Trong met also with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Canberra. He's the second high level visitor in the last month, following hard on the heels of Vietnam's deputy Prime Minister.
Australia had been an early investor in the country but the pace slowed down. Bilateral trade totals 8 billion dollars but foreign direct investment counts for just one billion ranking Australia in18th place and putting it far behind South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan which between them plan investments of about 50 billion dollars.
Part of the problem is red tape in the Socialist Republic, as Nguyen Phu Trong acknowledges.
NGUYEN PHU TRONG: Even though our infrastructure is still poor and our public administration reform is still cumbersome we do believe that we will surely improve ourselves. And from the side of our National Assembly, we fully commit to further improvement of our legal system and we will stand shadow by shadow with the government and the businesses of both Vietnam and Australia to further promote our bilateral business relations.
KARON SNOWDON: The business delegation with 70 of the most senior business executives is the largest from Vietnam to visit Australia. The group intends to stop off in South Korea and Japan on its way home.
Many commercial opportunities are arising from the privatisation of state owned companies, but it is an area fraught with obstacles.
The Secretary General of Vietnam's Chamber of Commerce and Industry Pham Gia Tuc says the government is working to improve transparency.
PHAM GIA TUC: Also we have a commitment to the WTO, so this really is a very priority for the Vietnamese Government to improve the legal system and the administration procedure.
KARON SNOWDON: One commentator has called Vietnam the latest Asian Tiger economy.
Vietnam's resource sector has attracted the likes of Santos, the ANZ Bank has been there for 14 years.
A new entrant, Sydney based Vietnam Emerging Capital hopes to raise funds to invest in former state owned enterprises.
VEC's chairman, Jack Tan is positive about his prospects but approaches Vietnam like any other developing market.
JACK TAN: One has to know the trade record of the companies that you are investing. At this stage of their privatisation, only the main big companies remain privatised, which is, they kept the best to the last.
KARON SNOWDON: Given the difficulties in financing at the moment, stemming from the subprime crisis, do you see Vietnam being affected much?
JACK TAN: Vietnamese will be marginally affected, because most of their exports are to the US and also they have high inflation, because of the oil price being so high. We think that there is some degree of impact on the, but will not be significant in terms of their export dollar, the GDP growth.
