Anticipating recovery, private capital flows to Vietnam

VietNamNet Bridge – Though Vietnam has not completely escaped the economic downturn, it still can catch the eye of foreign investors.  Kyocera (Japan) and Hong Leong Bank (Malaysia) have just made major commitments.

Japanese Kyocera MiTa, one of the world’s top 10 office machine groups, with annual revenues of $12 billion, has officially set up in Vietnam after selecting the HSTC Group as its partner. 

Through HSTC, Kyocera will sell office products and solutions to Vietnamese enterprises.  The Japanese group comes to Vietnam behind other big brand names like Canon, Fuji and HP, and it arrives in the crisis period. However, Kyocera does not feel disadvantaged.

Toshitaka Tanada, General Director for Asia-Pacific, says the Kyocera group well knows the difficulties of the crisis, “but we believe Vietnam’s an emerging economy which still can make headway despite the world economic downturn. We believe Vietnam’s economy will be reviving strongly and so this is the right time to start business in Vietnam.”

When the global financial crisis was at its peak in 2008, Malaysia’s biggest financial group, Hong Leong applied to establish a 100 percent foreign owned bank in Vietnam. The bank officially made debut in early October.

Le Dinh Long, General Director of Hong Leong Bank in Vietnam, said that despite the current difficulties, Hong Leong can see great potential in Vietnam’s market.

When a businessman starts operations in a difficult time, Long offered, he will have advantages when the market recovers .

VinaCapital and Jaccar plan investor conferences

Government officials expect that from now till the end of 2009 a lot of foreign investors will arrive in Vietnam to seek investment opportunities.

VinaCapital, the nation’s biggest investment fund manager, will organize an end-year investors’ conference to discuss the establishment of new funds in the next year.  VinaCapital head Don Lam said that Vietnam is destined to attract the new interest of global investors over the next two years.  Capital flows will favor new markets, Lam says, particularly stable markets like Vietnam.

Jaccar, an investment group based in France, will also organize a big conference on investment in Vietnam. Jaccar expects hundreds of foreign investors will arrive in Vietnam to seek opportunities in retail market, telecommunication, banking and stocks says Jacques de Chateauvieux, a Jaccar director.

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The Ministry of Planning and Investment will be active at a long list of events in upcoming months, including a conference on investment in tourism real estate in Da Nang City in March 2010 and investment promotion campaigns in Lam Dong province

Meanwhile, Vietnamese economists have warned that the return of foreign capital to Vietnam will put a hard pressure on the Government to undertake reforms that favor efficient use of capital. 

Phuoc Ha