PM pledges clear path for US firms

CA - Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung received the US-ASEAN Business Council delegation yesterday in Can Tho where the delegation will attend a conference on the Investment and Development of the Mekong Delta.

Dung said the economic and trade relationship between Viet Nam and the US had achieved many successes and in 2009, two-way trade reached US$15.5 billion. He added that investment by US enterprises in Viet Nam had also increased, catapulting the US to sixth largest of all the countries investing here.

Dung said the Mekong Delta was an active economic zone, producing and processing a variety of products under the agricultural sector including rice, fisheries and fruit. He added that this was also the location of the national electricity-gas-fertiliser complex.

He pledged to create a favourable environment for overseas enterprises and American ones in particular to invest, and said that the success of those overseas companies was also the success of Viet Nam.

Representing the delegation, Kevin Thieneman, President of Caterpillar Asia said US investments in Viet Nam had focused on infrastructure, informatics, electricity, gas, aeroplane manufacturing, medical, bio-technology and banking services. He hoped that the Vietnamese government would continue to create better conditions for US enterprises to invest in long-term projects in Viet Nam.