State visit to help enhance Vietnam-France trade and investment ties
State visit to help enhance Vietnam-France trade and investment ties
The Vietnam-France strategic partnership will see firms on both sides further strengthen trade and investment activities.
During Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s official visit to France during March 25-27, businesses from both countries are expected to sign contracts to import goods and services worth about $20 billion, which would help improve the trade balance between the two countries.
This sum will help France reduce its trade deficit towards Vietnam. Two-way trade turnover between the two countries hit $4.62 billion last year, with Vietnam earning an export turnover of $3.02 billion from France, and spending $1.6 billion on importing goods from the European market.
Trong will have a meeting with many French industrial developers who are greatly interested in doing business in Vietnam.
Following the 2013 Vietnam-France strategic partnership, bilateral trade has intensified with an average annual growth of 15 per cent. France is the second largest EU investor in Vietnam after Germany and is among the top 10 overall investors in the country.
Currently, Vietnam has 513 valid French investment projects registered at nearly $2 billion. The two countries’ two-way trade turnover hit $4.62 billion. It has 185 projects amounting to $848 million in Ho Chi Minh City, its largest foreign direct investment (FDI) destination in terms of the number of projects.
In 2017, Airbus sold 40 aircrafts to Vietnamese airlines, while GE/Alstom, along with Colas Rail and Thales, signed a contract for EUR190 million ($234.56 million) for the construction of a metro system.
Transport and infrastructure, along with the agri-food industry continue to be the focus of French investors. Based on future demand, the emerging industries in Vietnam will be those related to healthcare, environment, and urbanisation.
A great number of French firms are operating in Vietnam with high profit.
For example, following its acquisition of Ly Sinh Cong in 2016, Lectra, the French leader in textile technology solutions, established itself in Ho Chi Minh City.
The acquisition allowed Lectra to better respond to a growing demand and help Vietnamese companies and locally-established foreign groups to galvanise their production with new technologies.
Another example is Schneider Electric, the energy management and automation multinational that completed the construction of its $45-million production centre in Saigon High-Technology Park in 2017.
Serving the ASEAN and Australian markets with high-tech products for smart homes, the production centre is one of the largest amongst Schneider Electric’s 200 production centers in the world.
The overall outlook for Vietnam continues to remain positive, mostly due to a robust global economy, domestic reforms, trade, and a shift towards high-tech industries.
During Trong’s visit to France, he is expected to send the strong message that Vietnam will also encourage French firms to come to the country to invest in the sectors of science and technology, space, aviation, high-tech agriculture, culture, and tourism.
