VINACHEM

Michalak said that US exports to the country had nearly tripled since 2006, and last year two-way trade had reached US$15.4 billion.

"Last year, the US was also the largest foreign investor in Viet Nam," he said.

He added that US companies had continued to show strong interest in Viet Nam despite the global economic crisis, and there was no sign of that interest dwindling.

Progress in bilateral trade and investment relationship has coincided with a tremendous economic transformation in Viet Nam. Yearly real incomes in the country have grown an average of 7.2 per cent over the last decade and GDP per capita has gone from $189 in 1993 to $1,052 last year.

"Viet Nam is one of the most rapidly transforming countries in the world," he said. He also said that US diplomacy representative offices identified what they called "Best Prospect Sectors" where their companies were competitive. The sectors included telecommunications, information and technology, oil and gas, power generation, highway construction, environmental project management and technology as well as aviation.

"Just within this past month, we saw the signing of an agreement between Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications and a US satellite firm to design and build Viet Nam's second commercial satellite in two years, as well as the finalisation of a deal between EVN, Vinacomin and a US Independent Power Producer (IPP) to build a 1,100MW power plant in north-eastern Quang Ninh Province," he said.

He added that they could see additional energy this year and that there was also potential in other areas of Viet Nam's infrastructure development. At the event, the two countries also looked back on their bilateral trade relationship.

"After the signing of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) between the two sides in 2001, the Viet Nam-US bilateral trade relationship was fostered," said deputy minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Cam Tu.

Tu said that bilateral trade turnover last year was $15.4 billion, while that of 2001 was only $1.4 billion.

He added that with BTA, Vietnamese businesses had been given preferential import taxes, thus causing export turnover to the US to reach $12 billion last year, while US exports to the country increased 11 per cent–higher than other ASEAN countries.

He said that the US had been an important export market for Viet Nam in its economic development, adding that the relationship would be a strategic relation in the country's global economic integration.

(Source: VNS)