160/ HCM City’s authorities meet British firms to tackle business difficulties
16 October 2019
The administration of Ho Chi Minh City and the British Business Group Vietnam (BBGV) held a conference on October 14 to seek ways for removing difficulties facing British investors.
Pham Thiet Hoa, Director of the municipal Investment and Trade Promotion Centre, said the UK is an important partner in multiple spheres of Vietnam, including HCM City.
In 2018, trade between the two countries hit 6.74 billion USD (up 9.5 percent year on year), turning the UK the third biggest EU trade partner of Vietnam.
In the first eight months of this year, bilateral trade reached 4.53 billion USD, including 3.08 billion USD of exports and 557 million USD of imports by Vietnam, up 1.7 percent and 4.84 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, by the end of August, the UK had invested in 366 projects worth 3.64 billion USD in Vietnam, ranking 15th among the 132 countries and territories directly investing here. In HCM City alone, there are 153 valid investment projects of the UK at present, with a combined capital of over 600 million USD.
Hoa said the British business community in Vietnam has been growing in both the size and quality of their projects, showing the huge potential for investment partnership between the UK and HCM City.
Local authorities wish to listen to British firms’ opinions to help the city devise suitable solutions and policies to facilitate operations of foreign investors, including those from the UK, he added.
Neill James, Deputy Consul General of the UK in HCM City, said Vietnam is assessed as one of the most dynamic economies in Asia, and it has attracted great attention from foreign businesses and investors. British businesses also consider the country an important market and potential investment destination.
Therefore, the BBGV has organised many activities to introduce Vietnam to the business community in the UK to foster bilateral trade and investment, he noted.
At the conference, local officials informed British companies of the projects HCM City wants to attract investment to, mainly in urban landscape improvement, water supply and drainage, and transport infrastructure. They also fielded the firms’ questions about difficulties and obstacles relevant to labour contract and social insurance procedures, along with tax and customs regulations.
According to Kenneth Atkinson, a BBGV leader, British businesses are investing in various fields in HCM City, including education, finance – banking, hotel, real estate and service business.
The BBGV hopes the city will continue creating favourable conditions for their investment and business activities through more information exchange and difficulty removal so that British enterprises can further contribute to the development of the city as well as the Vietnam – UK cooperation, he added./.
Source: VNA
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267