FPT President Truong Gia Binh (second left) speaks at the France-Vietnam Business Forum

“This shows that more French businesses are joining the Vietnamese market in various fields such as aviation and healthcare. This is an eloquent demonstration of the French- Vietnam cooperation relationship,” the Prime Minister said in Hanoi on November 2.

France is the fifth largest European trade partner of Vietnam with the two-way trade turnover of $4.6 billion in 2017.  France ranked third last year among European countries and 16th among 114 countries that had investments in Vietnam with registered capital of $2.8 billion. 

However, Henri-Charles Claude, chair of CCIFV (French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam), said the 2018 France-Vietnam Business Forum on November 4 that French businesses need to speed up.

“French businesses need to accelerate. There are many opportunities here, but we must not be slow paced. The colleagues in South Korea or Japan, for example, are very active in Vietnam,” he said.

Tran Valentine, director of Andros Group, said Vietnam is both a large market with 90 million consumers and a gateway for enterprises to penetrate other Southeast Asian markets such as Cambodia and Thailand.

Alain Cany, chair of Jardines Vietnam, suggested that French businesses cooperate with large successful Vietnamese corporations to develop, which could be state-owned enterprises, equitized or private companies. 

Infrastructure development, smart cities and IT are the fields that Vietnam is willing to seek investment and cooperation.

“The IT demand has been growing very fast in the last three years. In Vietnam, the 4.0 industry revolution has become the hottest topic with the focus on developing e-government and digital economy,” said Truong Gia Binh, president of FPT, the largest domestic IT group.

Though business opportunities in Vietnam are great, French businesses believe the market is no longer ‘easy to conquer’. 

Valery Gaucherand, director of L’Oreal Vietnam, when asked about the Vietnamese market, mentioned both favorable and unfavorable conditions.

Vietnam’s cosmetics market is smaller than Thailand, but it has been growing rapidly. Vietnamese now want more luxurious products. However, one must not think Vietnamese will buy everything introduced to them. They will consider products carefully and compare the products of one company with others before making a decision.

Jean Jacques Bouflet, vice chair of EuroCham, commented that both Vietnamese and French businesses put high hopes on EVFTA (EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement) as the trade agreement allows French and European businesses to approach the Vietnamese market more easily.

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