US investors invited to do business in VN

PM Nguyen Tan Dung shows his confidence at the bright prospect of the country's economy

The US investors raised many frank questions and PM Dung responded with specific answers. Regarding the role of State-owned enterprises (SOEs), PM Dung said that the number of SOEs fell from 12,000 in 2001 to just 1,300 this year. Of this year's figure, 100 corporations and groups will be equitized from now to 2020.

Sectors like air transport, petroleum, telecommunication and banking among others have prepared equitization plans and are calling for strategic investors with an aim to make them operate under market rules and in a transparent and competitive manner, according to the PM.

PM Dung called on the US investors to join the process as he expressed his belief that Viet Nam has made a big leap forward and will surely reach the preset goals.

Regarding the Government's measures to support the sluggish real estate market, the PM admitted that global economic crisis has negatively affected this sector and the Government has designed a series of measures, including the restructuring of housing products, administrative reform, provision of preferential credits for people to by houses, permission for foreigners to own houses, to refresh the market.

The above measures are not new in many other countries but the Government chief believed that Viet Nam's real estate market will recover in the time to come.

For the Government's solution to restore investors' confidence in Viet Nam's competitiveness, PM Dung restated that the global economic downturn made it difficult for Viet Nam to sustain an average growth rate of over 7%. However, the Government has managed to maintain macro-economic stability and obtain the average GDP growth rate of around 5.6% over the past three years.

Regarding non-performing loans, PM Dung said according to the statistics of World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the rate is 7%. However, Viet Nam has successfully controlled the situation and set the target to lower non-performing loans to under 3% by 2015.

PM Dung affirmed the Government's orientation to encourage foreign investors to join Viet Nam's financial market, taking the US-based Metlife and France's BNP Paribas which have committed to penetrating this sector as examples.

Right ahead of his dialogue with the US investors, PM Dung delivered a speech in which he briefly updated the current socio-economic situation in Viet Nam as well as the Government's priority to boost economic restructuring, focusing on restructuring SOEs and banking system and public investment.

PM Dung took the occasion to ask the US Government not to discriminate against Vietnamese goods as it would affect the life of millions of poor people./.

By Hai Minh