US-Vietnam investment robust despite pandemic

Marie Damour, Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. embassy in Hanoi, said at a Vietnam-U.S. trade forum on Tuesday that the two countries have cooperated in various areas like healthcare, education, energy, and technology.

The U.S. is now the 11th biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with nearly US$10 billion.

Vietnamese automaker VinFast recently announced plans to invest over $200 million in the U.S.’s California state to manufacture electric vehicles, potentially creating over 1,000 jobs there.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said the impact of Covid has opened up new business opportunities for both Vietnamese and American firms to develop new supply chains, establish standby supply systems in various locations to ensure sustainability and continuity.

Bui Huy Son, minister counselor and head of the Vietnam Trade Office in the U.S., said goods supply from Vietnam plummeted during the fourth wave of Covid [which began in April], and the economic revival is offering opportunities to suppliers in Vietnam to intensify production and supply to U.S. partners.

Virginia Foote, chairwoman of the American Chamber of Commerce’s Hanoi chapter, said Vietnam should intensify vaccination so that companies could resume production quicker and participate more deeply in global value chains.

Vietnam should also facilitate trade, improve tax policies and simplify administrative procedures to increase trade and investment between its and U.S. enterprises, she added.

Bilateral trade surged from $450 million in 1995, when the two nations established diplomatic relations, to $91 billion last year.

It was $89.6 billion in the first 10 months of this year, with Vietnam exporting $76.7 billion worth of goods to the U.S.