VietNamNet Bridge – More than 700 delegates attending the Global Investment Forum on Wednesday in Hanoi saw a very positive economic – investment picture of Vietnam in the current period

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung delayed the monthly cabinet meeting from the morning to the afternoon to attend the forum. While the government leaders confirmed that the condition of the economy is very favorable with the economic growth reaching the yearly target (at least 6.53% this year and 6.7% for 2016), low inflation (only 1.5-2% for the whole year), local and foreign investors spoke about Vietnam overcoming the crisis and described their business plans for the future.

The discussion about the economic situation in Vietnam attracted attention of the CEO of Indochina Capital, Peter Ryder, who has been in Vietnam for more than 20 years. Ryder said he had just attended a meeting of big investors at a resort in the central province of Quang Nam. “The subject of the six-hour meeting was about investing in ASEAN, but investors spent up to five hours to talking about Vietnam,” Ryder said.

The interests of foreign investors in Vietnam that described by Ryder at the forum held by Euromoney and the Ministry of Planning & Investment partly helped explain why $17 billion of foreign direct investment had been (FDI) registered in Vietnam in the past nine months, more than half of the same period of 2014.

Chairman of Sunwah Group and VinaCapital – Mr. Jonathan Choi – recalled his feeling of risk a few years ago, when inflation highly increased. But now the opportunity has come back and foreign investors may be waiting in many areas, especially infrastructure development projects and agriculture – fisheries.

Along with FDI, the indirect capital flow from foreign investors has improved in recent years. According to Vice President of the State Securities Commission, Nguyen Thanh Long, the listed securities portfolio of foreign investors increased by an average of 20-25% per year. Currently foreign investors account for only 1% of the total trading accounts but the total portfolio value is over $15 billion, accounting for 25% of the transaction value of market.

Chairman of the Saigon Securities Company (SSI) Nguyen Duy Hung said the current situation of the economy is what investors were dreaming about 10 years ago.

Along with the stable macroeconomic indicators, Hung quoted statistics of the state agencies showing that per capita income (in purchasing power parity) of Vietnam today is over $5,000. This not only helps businesses have more opportunities for selling goods but also provides a basis for Vietnam to gradually reduce ODA funds.

“Recently a locality refused to receive ODA. We are very glad to hear that. It means that Vietnam will have a chance to get capital which requires greater efficiency, helps businesses improve competitiveness and sustainable development,” Hung said.

According to Hung, after a period of fierce competition from other countries in the region such as Indonesia, the Philippines and most recently Myanmar, Vietnam seems to have become an address of priority for investment again. However, to take advantage of the opportunity to once again become the “star in attracting FDI” as it was in the period of 2007-2009, many questions were raised at the forum about Vietnam and its biggest rivals.

Along with the insights shared at the forum such as reasonable labor costs, trained labor, large-scale markets and ohers, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said that Vietnam’s participation in 8 Free Trade Area agreements (FTAs) in recent years has brought many opportunities for the business community.

Particularly, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) has a GDP of about $2,500 billion and may reach $10,000 billion by 2030. If the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement goes through, Vietnam can enjoy many preferential incentives in trade with 55 countries.

However, the PM acknowledged that the achievements in integration and investment attraction of Vietnam is not commensurate with the potential. “We are working hard to come up with solutions to overcome challenges and our own limitations,” he said.

The Prime Minister stressed that the investment and business environment in Vietnam is still in the process of completion and renovation, especially the stage of implementation. However, he affirmed that Vietnam can achieve the targets of the business environment equivalent to the group of ASEAN 4 in 2016, even in this year.

He called on private and foreign investors to invest in infrastructure in the form of public-private partnership (PPP), and participate in the purchase and equitization of State-owned enterprises.

The Minister of Planning and Investment, Bui Quang Vinhm reaffirmed that Vietnam is pushing stronger integration with the FTA. Thereby, the biggest expectation of the Vietnamese Government and enterprises is to expand the market.

To do this, Vinh said that two things must be done: modify the economic institutions and the legal system in accordance with international practice besides the accepting the competition and expanding investment.

He cited textile-garment as an example, saying that if Vietnam is successful in TPP negotiations, Vietnamese textile-garment firms may enjoy tax rate of 0% in many markets, instead of the current 17-20%.

Answering the question about Vietnam’s rivals in the region in attract foreign investment, Vinh said the people who feel most clearly about it are international investors, who have invested in Thailand, Indonesia and other countries.

However, Vinh said that in the context of Vietnam’s participation in AEC, the Vietnamese Government wants all countries in the region to have the opportunity to grow.

“For Vietnam, it is necessary to overcome its own problems, otherwise many countries that are not our rivals today will certainly be Vietnam’s rivals tomorrow,” Minister Vinh said.