Imc’s 50-strong business delegation returns with new opportunities from vietnam
“The two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and India has increased by 200% in the last four years to around $ 2.8 billion in 2010. There is still massive potential for partnerships between the two nations.” There are many lesser known facts about the Vietnamese economy which have been revealed by the KPMG-Indian Merchants’ Chamber (IMC) report ‘India Calling, India-Vietnam Business Partnership Summit’. The report was unveiled during the conference in Vietnam.
IMC led 50-strong high-powered business delegation to Vietnam which participated in the India-Vietnam Business Summit and in extensive B2B negotiations during its prestigious “India Calling” Conference held in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) between 5 and 11 November 2011 for exploring business and investment opportunities in Vietnam.
During its weeklong stay in Vietnam, the IMC delegation visited Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other important places and met CEOs Vietnamese business houses, and also top functionaries of the Vietnamese Government. The research report was also unveiled in Vietnam which was much appreciated by the delegations of both countries and the authorities in Vietnamese government.
The IMC President, Ms Bhavna Doshi said that leading business houses represented on the delegation were confident of identifying many areas for potential business cooperation and joint ventures, and of forging long-term strategic business partnership with the Vietnamese companies. “Our Chamber sees vast opportunities for both India and Vietnam to complement each other’s efforts in key sectors such as manufacturing, services, and infrastructure aimed at deriving mutual advantage in the global market, and also for strengthening the mechanisms of technology transfer and investment.”
Ms Doshi also said that as the report emphasized key sectors in which there could be synergies between both countries, the delegation paid attention to the target areas. According to the report, “Labor costs per unit produced in Vietnam are much more stable as compared to India. In Vietnam, export accounted for 76.8 percent of GDP in 2010 and a uniform devaluation of Vietnam’s currency since 2000 indicates that exports from Vietnam can get even more competitive over time.”
About Agriculture, the report states that Vietnam is a major exporter of processed food. The nation’s food processing industry is constituted of almost 260 sea food-processing plants, having annual production capacity of around 250,000 tons, 24 slaughter houses and meat-processing plants, and 23 confectionery manufacturers.
Similarly, about the opportunities in Healthcare, the report states, “The Ministry of Health provides healthcare services through a system that is divided into a number of tiers, namely village, commune, district and provincial. At the district level (which covers a population of at least 20,000), district health centers and hospitals exist. Provincial hospitals provide specialist services. The government announced in mid-2009 that it would spend USD 2.7 billion in the following four years on improving its network of hospitals. It is hoped that by 2015 the number of hospital beds will rise to 2.5 for every 1,000 people.”
On Pharmaceutical sector, the report reveals, “According to a plan drafted by Vietnam’s drug administration, the Vietnamese pharmaceutical industry needs to maximize its production capacity until 2015, concentrated on technology transfers and research for essential medicines, whereas the industry should move to modern and specialty medicine between 2015 and 2020. Vietnam plans to source 70 per cent of the pharmaceutical demands domestically by 2020.”
“Global players are setting up their solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing units in Vietnam. Till May 2011, three companies (Red Sun Energy, First solar and IC Energy) with a total investment of around USD 700 million, are either operating or building their solar module manufacturing plants in Vietnam,” is a key finding of the Report about the renewable energy in Vietnam.
According to the report, The World Bank pledged about USD 2.5 billion in official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam in 2010. In March 2011, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to provide USD 0.29 billion to support the construction of Hanoi’s USD 1 billion metro railway line 3.
The Governments of Vietnam and India were lending full support to this conference, as it was translating India’s newly formulated ‘Look Eastward’ policy into concrete action, and implementation of Vietnam’s ‘India Focus’ policy.
