Which industries will attract US investors?
A recent report of the Foreign Investment Department on "Trends of US investment in Vietnam" shows hints regarding potential investment for US investors.
One of the most important things is low labor costs. Soaring labor costs in China have urged many multinational corporations of the US to turn their attention to Vietnam, where labor costs are 50% cheaper.
Some large corporations are planning to move large-scale projects to Vietnam. For example, Microsoft has moved its smartphone factory from China to Vietnam in late 2014.
Other groups are also considering moving their plants to Vietnam as Intel, Jabil, Microchip ...
According to the Foreign Investment Agency, the signs shows that American corporations consider Vietnam as a strategic market, for long-term benefits, not only because of immediate benefits.
Secondly, the biggest attraction for most foreign investors in general and American in particular is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) of which Vietnam is one of 12 member countries.
In the past few years, the interest of US companies is growing with strong moves to seek investment opportunities in the country.
If in 2013 only 22 US businesses learnt about the business environment in Vietnam, in the first half of 2014, three business groups with large members of investors (including many big corporations such as Boeing, Apple, AIG, Exxon Mobil ...) visited Vietnam to look for investment opportunities.
Recently, the group of more than 30 enterprises of the US-ASEAN Business Council came to Vietnam to seek opportunities for cooperation in the field of construction.
Interest in Vietnam will increase once Vietnam joins the TPP, and the TPP has helped push many US companies to Vietnam to seek investment opportunities in recent times.
Thirdly, the young population and the improving income of Vietnamese people have helped increase purchasing power in Vietnam.
At the same time, stable political situation, controlled inflation and the government’s measures to promote growth and support investors are factors luring foreign investors to Vietnam.
Fourthly, the key sectors of the Vietnamese economy at present, petroleum (Exxon Mobil, Chevron ...), aerospace (Boeing, ADC - HAS Airport), information technology (Microsoft, Intel, Apple, HP) and electricity (General Electric, General Atlantis, AES ...) are also the strengths of the US.
