VietNamNet Bridge – At a meeting with reporters in HCMC last Sunday, the new U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius, shared his views on how ties between the two countries will grow, particularly in trade and investment, and his priorities during his office term. Excerpts:

Could you assess Vietnam’s business environment? Do U.S. companies meet any obstacles in this market?

First of all, when you look at Southeast Asia, broadly the United States is the number one investor. But why the United States isn’t the number one investor in Vietnam and I think that there are a couple of reasons. I think that we can become the number one in the future, but we have to work seriously together in order to become number one.

U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius

I think the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is going to give us tremendous opportunities to increase U.S. trade with and investment in Vietnam.

When I ask American businesses what else is important to them, they tell me that they really want a level playing field… they want fairness, transparency, and predictability.

A couple of days ago, I spoke to the chairman of the People’s Committee (of HCMC), and I said that we have a tremendous opportunity with TPP. This is what American investors are interested in. And I asked him, can we have a specific mechanism for talking to the People’s Committee… when there’s a problem that an American investor encounters here, he or she will have a specific place to go to resolve that problem. The chairman said, “Yes, we can have that mechanism.” So I will follow up with him right away, and we will establish that mechanism.

The good news is that there are now many more opportunities for having dialogues on these issues. There’s the Vietnam Trade Facilitation Alliance, the Vietnam Business Forum. So there are more opportunities than there were before to have exchanges about how we can improve the trade and investment environment. And there’s much, much more trade and investment than there was back then. So now we’re talking about US$30 billion (in bilateral trade) a year, when before it was a very small number of business people here and a very small amount of trade.

Do you think that the TPP negotiations can be concluded this year?

Well, for one thing, I am very confident about TPP. And I’m much more confident now than I was a few months ago. We’ve just had a bilateral round of negotiations in Hanoi and our negotiators made a lot of progress. I’ve met with your leaders, your President, your Prime Minister and your Trade Minister and other leaders, and I believe there is a deep commitment to completing TPP negotiations with the United States.

I know for certain that U.S. leadership is committed to completing TPP. I am confident and optimistic that the U.S. Senate will give the President trade promotion authority. And after my time here, I’m also confident that we’ll be able to complete our negotiations so that the President will be able to deliver TPP to the U.S. Congress this spring. We hope that there will be a vote on TPP this summer. The timing is a little bit unpredictable because our Congress will decide itself when it will take action, but the President wants to deliver TPP to the Congress this spring.

Although the TPP negotiations have yet to be concluded, but many companies from Asia are coming to Vietnam to prepare for the time when the agreement takes effect, but I don’t see any move from U.S. businesses?

I do see moves in terms of preparation by U.S. investors. I see a lot of companies that see there are going to be some big opportunities as a result of the TPP, especially in this country. You know that the economic experts believe that Vietnam is poised to benefit the most of all the 12 (participating) countries. I think Malaysia might be second. But Vietnam should be the number one biggest beneficiary from TPP.

I’ve been hearing from a lot of U.S. companies that they have big plans for deepening their engagement. And I’ve heard of new companies that want to come to Vietnam because they think it’s becoming a more attractive place to invest and do business. So, there are companies coming to see me and engaging with my team and they’re engaging with our team back in the United States.

This is because they see big opportunities as a result of TPP. But they also see big opportunities as a result of progress that Vietnam has made on its own. And I think they see this TPP will enable a lot more to happen.

What are the priorities in your term of office in Vietnam?

Number one is strengthening the economic and trade relationship. That’s got to be number one because it’s the steadying factor for everything that we do. Number two is strengthening our cooperation in the field of governance. Number three is strengthening our security ties. Number four is enhancing educational cooperation and educational exchanges. And number five is enhancing cooperation in the fields of environment, science and technology, and health.

Those are the five priorities that I’ve laid out for the Government of Vietnam and that my own government supports as the top priorities for deepening our partnership.

What would you do for the number one priority?

I’ve talked a lot about TPP. That’s number one and I won’t talk about that any more. I briefly mentioned the idea of direct flights earlier and now just think about it. If we had direct flights between HCMC and Los Angeles, for example, that would make it so much easier for business people to travel between our two countries. For tourists, for students, for professors, scientists, artists, all the people who are involved in people-to-people relationships would have an easier time.

So, we are committed to working with Vietnam to achieve what’s called Category 1 status in terms of aviation safety, and world class security standards so that we can get to the point where we can have direct flights between our two countries. I think that will make an enormous difference. I will invest time and energy and talk to the leaders of Vietnam about that initiative. I believe if there is sufficient will on both sides that we can have direct flights between our two countries.

Also, I’ve been working with companies that are already here to remove obstacles to successfully doing business here. I’ve told the American business community that my door is always open to them. If they have a problem getting access to decision-makers, or if they have problems with regulations or a lack of transparency or a lack or predictability, they can come to the embassy and we will try to help.

They know their businesses better than I do, so I will never tell them what they should be doing in their businesses. But I will help them in any way I can to be successful here. Not only because it’s good for their businesses, but that it’s good for our relationship.

Are there any special activities to be done this year to mark 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the U.S.?

What I am confident about is that we will have a lot of high-level visits this year. This is the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our two countries. We’ll have a lot of high-level visits in both directions in order to strengthen our relationship because so many people in both governments are ambitious for this relationship and see huge potential and see the possibility for this year being a watershed year in our relationship. So, a lot of travel back and forth between the United States and Vietnam is expected this year.

SGT