US Secretary of Commerce in Vietnam to Expand Trade Ties

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez is in Vietnam for the next 3 days meeting with government officials and business leaders trying to expand trade ties between the two countries and to remove hurdles so U.S. businesses can get into the action a little faster.

The U.S. currently ranks only 6th on the list of top foreign investors in Vietnam behind Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the next few years, I am expecting the U.S. to move quickly toward the top of the list.

U.S. institutional investors and business are very eager to invest in Vietnam and they have good reasons to do so. Recently, Vietnam made it into the list of top 10 most attractive FDI destinations. The list was released by The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for 2007-2009. Vietnam ranked 50 on the same list just 3 years ago.

Top 10 most Attractive FDI Destinations in 2007-2009
1. China
2. India
3. United States
4. Russia
5. Brazil
6. Vietnam
7. United Kingdom
8. Australia
9. Mexico
10. Poland and Germany

And in July of this year, The PricewaterhouseCoopers EM20 Index, ranks Vietnam as the most attractive destination for manufacturing companies. Now that's pretty exciting for Vietnam.

Top 10 Most Attractive Manufacturing Destinations
1. Vietnam
2. China
3. Poland
4. Chile
5. Malaysia
6. Thailand
7. India
8. South Africa
9. Hungary
10. Saudi Arabia

One of the biggest complaints from foreign investors is the process of getting into Vietnam. The current pace is moving way too slow for most American businesses. I guess this is not that bad of a complaint for Vietnam. Currently, there are approximately 500 investment projects by U.S. companies in Vietnam with a total capital of $5B USD and American businesses can't wait to pump a lot more dough into this emerging economy.

Secretary Gutierrez was joined by 22 American businesses: 3M Company, Abaxis Inc., ALCOA Inc., Altec, Inc., AmericanTours International, Baxter International Inc., Carus Corporation, Century Aluminum Company, Cummins Inc., Eaton Corporation, GANNON International, Gerber Scientific, Inc., Marriott International, Inc., Northwest, Airlines Corporation, Oshkosh Truck Corporation, Rockwell Automation, Terex Corporation, The AES Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, The Ford Motor Company, The Timken Company, VeriSign, Inc.

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