Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung has voiced his hope that US enterprises will become the biggest investor in Vietnam to seize every cooperation opportunity in the countries’ development process on the basis of equality, mutual respect, and mutual benefits.

He made the remark at a meeting with a business delegation of the US - ASEAN Business Council (USABC) in Hanoi on March 21.

Highlighting the two countries’ comprehensive and fruitful relations, Minister Dung said the US is currently the second largest trading partner and one of the leading export markets of Vietnam. It is also an important ODA provider and the 11th biggest among the 142 countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian nation.

Vietnam highly values the fruitful investment and business activities of US investors and hopes they will maintain their trust and expand investment, trade, and development cooperation in the country, he noted.

The official was of the view that there is huge cooperation potential in the fields of green growth, digital economy, science - technology development, and innovation, adding that Vietnam encourages and prioritises quality and focus-driven foreign direct investment.

The country is also implementing policies to help businesses step up investment in science - technology and improve their production capacity to engage in global supply chains, particularly in the spheres of high technology, innovation, green energy, renewable energy, finance - banking, health care, human resource training, infrastructure, and environment, according to Dung.

The minister affirmed that the Vietnamese and US economies are complementary to each other and still hold much potential for cooperation and development in the future.

USABC President and CEO Ted Osius, who is a former US Ambassador to Vietnam, said US firms strongly believe in Vietnam’s growth prospects and always want to seek business and investment cooperation chances in the country.

Many business delegations of the USABC have come to Vietnam in the past, but this time, there are up to 50 firms, including major ones like Boeing, Coca-Cola, CitiBank, Meta, SpaceX, Netflix, Abbott, and AES, operating in various sectors, which once again demonstrates US enterprises and investors’ interest in Vietnam, he went on.

At the meeting, representatives of US enterprises expressed the intention of setting up or expanding investment and business activities in Vietnam.

Minister Dung said Vietnam always hopes to attract investment from the US, and that US businesses’ contributions to bilateral investment and trade ties are considerable, via not only economic partnerships but also policy opinions and proposals about investment climate improvement and policy and law perfection submitted to the Vietnamese Government.

The US currently has 1,223 valid projects worth over 11.4 billion USD in Vietnam, ranking 11th among the 142 countries and territories investing here. Meanwhile, it ranks 10th among the 80 countries where Vietnamese firms are investing in.

Bilateral trade hit a record of over 123 billion USD in 2022, up 11% year on year, turning the US into the second biggest trading partner of Vietnam, and Vietnam the eighth largest one of the North American nation./. VNA