What kind of investments do American billionaires want to make in Vietnam?

The stock market is one of the areas where American billionaires want to invest in Vietnam.

Having just returned from a trip to encourage American businesses to invest in Vietnam, Mr. Pham Viet Muon, former Deputy Head of the Government Office and a member of the organizing committee for the investment promotion conference held in the US from July 1st to 5th, shared a lot of interesting information.

Mr. Muon stated that Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung recently chaired an investment promotion conference in New York (USA) with the theme "My Vietnam - Your Investment Destination." The conference attracted over 160 representatives from leading US and global funds, banks, and financial institutions with total assets of trillions of USD who have shown interest in investing in Vietnam. The dialogue session alone saw a packed hall of American investors.

Four sectors attracting American investors.

According to him, there are four areas in Vietnam that top American investors are interested in, including the privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the stock market, government bonds, and business establishment.

Mr. Pham Viet Muon and billionaire Phillip A. Falcone, Chairman of the Habinger Fund - the fund that invested in the Grand - Ho Tram project, Xuyen Moc, Ba Ria-Vung Tau. - (Photo: Provided)

Mr. Muon emphasized that currently, foreign investors in general, and American investors in particular, have not participated much in the restructuring process of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) through privatization. The reason is that American investors are large investors, while the privatization process of SOEs to date has mainly taken place in small and medium-sized enterprises. American investors, on the other hand, are interested in large enterprises.

Referring to Vietnam's promising capital market, Mr. Muon noted that American investors are interested in the Vietnamese stock market due to stable economic growth and the prospect of Vietnam returning to high growth rates of over 7% per year. Particularly noteworthy is the government's recent shift in thinking, officially issuing Decree 60/2015 on loosening foreign ownership limits, allowing foreign investors to own 100% of the capital in businesses, except for those in conditional business sectors. (Previously, we limited foreign ownership to 30%, then raised it to 49%, and now it's 100% for many sectors).

Explaining why, despite previous visits by many American corporations to Vietnam to explore investment opportunities, the number of businesses investing in the country has not been high, Mr. Muon suggested that the time was not yet ripe for American investors to enter Vietnam. Furthermore, large projects did not appear immediately when Vietnam opened its doors to foreign investment. This was not attractive to American investors, including many very large investors and billionaires from around the world.

"The situation is different now. We are privatizing large corporations and state-owned enterprises, and now American investors are coming in. Moreover, the sectors we are calling for investment in are quite broad, including electricity, oil and gas, coal, and aviation," Mr. Muon said.

He also stated that while US investment in Vietnam is currently quite substantial, it remains low compared to investments from Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. The reason is that US investors have been waiting for Vietnam's business environment to significantly improve through operational and innovative processes, especially after Vietnam signed the Vietnam-US Free Trade Agreement and is moving towards signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. The TPP is expected to boost trade between Vietnam and other countries, opening up significant opportunities for the Vietnamese economy as well as for investors interested in Vietnam.

An attractive destination for investment capital.

American billionaire Wilbur L. Ross, with a net worth exceeding $3 billion, ranked 200th in the US and 600th globally, observed at an investment promotion conference that Vietnam is an attractive destination for investment capital, especially in the stock market and privatized state-owned enterprises. The 78-year-old billionaire also believes that Vietnam's export-oriented sectors and real estate will develop strongly and are worth considering for investment.

According to Wilbur L. Ross, American investors are interested in the economic reform efforts, including tax policy reforms and increased foreign investment opportunities, which the Vietnamese government has been strongly implementing.

The United States is Vietnam's largest economic, trade, and investment partner. As of February 2015, the US had 729 direct investment projects in Vietnam with a registered capital of US$11 billion. Many large US financial corporations have participated in the Vietnamese capital market.

According to Vov.vn