VietNamNet Bridge - Products of Thailand, Korea and Japan are dominating the Vietnamese market. Notably, there are many signals showing the expansion of Thai retailers in Vietnam while Thailand is not a TPP member. Will Vietnam's TPP pie be indirectly enjoyed by the countries heavily investing in Vietnam?
Hoang Trung Dung, Chairman and General Director of AIDA Vietnam Consulting and Trade Company, and FSB Business Administration Institute, said that in addition to the retail sector, Thailand also intends to acquire Vietnamese travel firms. Foreign investors are also eyeing Vietnamese beverage market.
"When foreign investors heavily invest in Vietnam, we will not only lose the profits of the TPP pie. Once Thai, Korean and Japanese bosses are involved in running their firms in Vietnam, their goods will invade the local market and push Vietnamese goods out of their supermarkets. Foreign investors will benefit a lot," Dung said.
Dr Le Dang Doanh, former director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, said that Thailand was one of the largest Southeast Asian investors in Vietnam. This is an inevitable fact because both countries are members of the ASEAN Economic Community.
"We have the TPP cake but most of the cake is enjoyed by foreigners. Domestic enterprises must link together to benefit from the TPP," Doanh noted.
Mr. Alex Maskiell, Second Secretary for the Division for Cooperation and Economic Development of the Australian Embassy in Hanoi, said that this situation was happening in some other big countries, not only in Vietnam. However, with this impact, if Vietnam cooperates well with big economies, the potential will be enormous.
Alex said that foreign investment brings huge resources for Vietnam to develop and to acquire modern science and technology.
He said that Vietnam must understand its own investment, so Vietnam should not restrict investment but learn from foreign investors before competing with them.
Na Son