Vietnam's OFDI has increased by 30 times compared to 10 years ago

However, doing business in other markets, especially underdeveloped ones with unpredictable risks, is a difficult job.

The 2018 Vietnam-Laos Trade Fair took place in Vientiane in some days. 

Vo Ngoc Thu, the owner of Tuan Thu Handicrafts in Binh Duong province, was attended the trade fair. Some other large handicrafts companies that entered the Lao market some years ago have gained satisfactory business results.

Mai Thi Thuy, chair of the Hanoi Small & Medium Female Entrepreneurs Association, commented that Vietnam’s consumer goods fit the tastes of Laotians.

However, though the market has potential, Vietnamese enterprises have had to struggle for many years to penetrate the market, where they have to compete fiercely with Thai and Chinese products. 

This is because Vietnamese still have not set up markets, shops and supermarkets. Meanwhile, Chinese have built distribution networks in nearly all the provinces in Laos.

For a long time, Vietnamese enterprises paid inappropriate attention to surveying the market and searching for information, but they only focused on boosting sales. 

Saigon Co-op, one of the Vietnamese biggest retail chains, drew up a plan to open supermarkets in Cambodia many years ago, but the plan has not been realized

Nguyen Thanh Nhan, general director of Saigon Co-op, said that Saigon Co-op has  not only set up a network of shops, but also developed a logistics system.

According to Nguyen Hong Son from the Hanoi National University, Vietnam’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar is meeting challenges as the members of the Mekong Sub-region are becoming more attractive to foreign investors from ASEAN+3 countries, especially China.

Vietnam’s OFDI has increased rapidly in recent years with 930 projects, 43 percent of which are in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. 

However, investors have warned that competition among foreign investors there will be stiff. 

Meanwhile,infrastructure development in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar and transport routes between Vietnam and the three countries remain weak.

The problem also lies in the limited capability of Vietnamese investors. They do not have medium- and long-term vision, lack of linkage and capital. Besides, the government’s policies on supporting OFDI are unattractive.

Meanwhile, a lawyer noted that Vietnamese investors meet high risks when investing overseas because of the poor understanding about the laws of host countries and the lack of information.

He cited an Oxfam report as saying that there had been many conflicts and disputes about land between foreign investors and local people.

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