Viet Nam still apple of Singaporean eyes

Despite Vietnam’s slowing economy, more than 300 businesspeople flocked to a conference in Singapore Tuesday to learn about opportunities in the country, with most believing the hard times won’t last long.

The businesspeople, Singaporean investors and representatives of multinationals based in the city-state, discussed the economic situation and prospects at the conference “Doing Business in Viet Nam.”

Many of the attendees said they planned to expand their businesses into Viet Nam, which is becoming more attractive as the Singaporean market has become so crowded and competition in China and India so tough.

Laila Salim, a director of Caden Technologies Pte. Ltd., said she knew many companies had shifted their business to Viet Nam from China.

Viet Nam has been hit by sky-rocketing inflation this year, which hit 25% year-on-year in May.

The once-booming stock market is the world’s worst performing exchange this year, losing 60% of its value since January.

The government has revised down this year’s targeted economic growth rate to 7% from the previous 8.5-9% target band.

However, dozens of businesspeople told Thanh Nien they were still upbeat about the prospects of Vietnam’s economy.

“We are not very worried,” some said, while said they expected “the difficulties will pass in six months.”

Huynh Buu Quang, Head of Commercial Banking at HSBC Viet Nam, said high inflation was inevitable as global food and oil prices continued their remarkable rise.

Speculation and excessive imports worsened the situation, he said.

Quang said Vietnam’s stock market was adjusting itself after several years of being overvalued.

But he assured the audience that the problems, including that of the financial and real estate markets, were “short-term” and the government’s policies were proving effective.

Quang’s opinion was echoed by some of the conference’s other speakers.

Simon Ong, Group Managing Director of Kingsmen Creatives Ltd., an event organizer with a Vietnamese offshoot, said his company was still confident about the business prospects this year and in the future.

With a long-term view and good planning, doing business in Vietnam would be successful, he said.

Meanwhile, Michael Connor, a professor at Nanyang Technological University, criticized some overly negative reports about the Vietnamese economy.

Despite its struggling economy, Viet Nam attracted US$31.6 billion in newly-registered foreign direct investment in the first half of this year, $10 billion more than the amount pledged in all of 2007, the Vietnamese government’s Ministry of Planning and Investment said. (TN)