Business grouping facilitates US-Vietnam investment treaty
Thanh Nien | Friday, October 17, 2008
Business grouping facilitates US-Vietnam investment treaty
The US Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) is set to hold in Ho Chi Minh City today a roundtable with Vietnamese officials on a planned bilateral investment treaty between the two countries.
Murray Hiebert, senior director, Southeast Asia AmCham, will present an overview of bilateral investment treaties, including financial services, distribution, natural resources, visual products, and real estate, according to an AmCham source.
The two countries agreed to launch talks for a bilateral investment treaty during Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to the US last June.
The first session of the talks could be as early as this month, the AmCham source said.
“A... commercially meaningful bilateral investment treaty will support Vietnam’s interest in promoting FDI in the services sector, especially with strong provisions for core investment protection, national treatment, and access to investor-state dispute settlement,” an AmCham statement published on its website said.
The investment accord would provide US investors in Vietnam key legal protections and enhanced market access with "important direct and collateral benefits for US exporters and consumers alike," US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said in June.
The two countries normalized trade relations in 2001.
Two-way trade rose 30 percent from a year earlier to US$12.5 billion in 2007. It reached nearly $10 billion by August this year, according to data from the US International Trade Commission.
