US businesses expected progressive changes and clear improvements in both hard and soft infrastructure as well as policies for investment and business co-operation in Viet Nam, said Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Virginia Foote.

Speaking at a conference to promote trade and investment co-operation between Viet Nam and its strategic and important partners in Ha Noi on Tuesday, Foote said co-operation policies between Viet Nam and its partners played a very important role in trade development.

She said if hard and soft infrastructure networks were completed, Viet Nam would have many advantages. Along with that was the development of a non-cash economy, ensuring safety for technology to minimise the use of cash or cash-based transactions.

US businesses were also interested in the export and transference of technology, Foote added.

In order to help businesses feel secure, she said intellectual property protection also needed more attention from authorities.

For provinces and cities, there were still difficulties with tax collection. Viet Nam had opened its doors, but the tax base and tax policies were still unfriendly, Foote stressed.

Chairman of the VCCI Vu Tien Loc said Viet Nam had 17 key partner countries, including the US, South Korea and Japan, which were also large economies and the most important components of the world economy in the role of financial resources and the biggest technology hubs.

Loc said these 17 countries had invested nearly US$230 billion in Viet Nam, contributing 50 per cent of the country's import and export value.

“These countries played a very important, even a decisive role, in Viet Nam’s future economic growth.”

Head of JETRO Hanoi, one of the two representative offices of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Viet Nam, Hiromitsu SHO said Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) still had many limitations on technology but there was potential to grow.

He said JETRO was currently providing information and advice to many SMEs. Viet Nam was the only country in Southeast Asia where JETRO had two offices in operation.

There are more than 3,200 Japanese enterprises operating and investing in Viet Nam. JETRO promotes business and production activities between the two countries, pushing trade and investment co-operation and guiding Japanese enterprises to participate in setting plans for the development of support industries in Viet Nam.

According to JETRO's research, more than 70 per cent of Japanese enterprises wanted to expand their investment in Viet Nam.

“This is a very high rate that proves the country’s attractiveness to Japanese businesses. The market size, low labour costs and good living conditions for foreign employees are highly appreciated by JETRO or Japanese businesses,” Hiromitsu said.

However, to increase investment co-operation or trade promotion between the two countries, except for the issue of labour costs, administrative procedures needed further renovation to improve the investment environment, he added. — VNS