Vietnamese delegation to headline Atlanta Forum on Southeast Asia

A Vietnamese actively courting province Atlanta the investors will deliver on their promise to bring a high-level delegation to the city next week.

Vo Van Minhthe governor of Binh Duong province, just north of Ho Chi Minh Cityis expected to feature a group of at least 10 delegates from the province of over 2.4 million people, who will visit the Atlanta Metropolitan Chamber for a Monday business forum titled Vietnam: gateway to Southeast Asia. The event will include speeches from a former US Ambassador to Vietnam, four local companies doing business in the region and provincial officials highlighting incentives and investment opportunities. See the full list of events here

Binh Duong is home to Becamex Industrial Development Corp., a developer of industrial parks and townships including warehouses, hospitals, universities and more. The company is proud to serve North American companies looking for competitively priced, high-tech sourcing and manufacturing operations in Asia.

Becamex in December operated Atlanta World organize a forum together with the Global Trade Centers in Savannah and Atlanta which would position Vietnam as a reliable partner for business in Asia during a period of unprecedented uncertainty.

The hybrid event, held during a time of heightened COVID concern, was presented to an in-person audience in Atlanta, engaging virtually with Governor Vo and other senior officials from across the province and Becamex.

In his opening remarks presented virtually through a translator during this forum, Mr. Vo said that Vietnam had just come through the fourth wave of COVID-19 with a strategy focused on adaptation and restarting. of production rather than on the prevention of any case of the disease. Binh Duong, he added, ranks second only to Ho Chi Minh City in terms of attracting investment to Vietnam and has forged international partnerships with the aim of welcoming the world.

“Over the years, our province has always paid attention to supporting investors in the province by improving the investment environment, enhancing competitiveness by applying science and technology, simplifying administrative procedures, deploying training human resources and building social housing for workers,” Vo said. said.

At least one Atlanta company has benefited from this for nearly 20 years since it first set foot in Binh Duong in Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parkdeveloped as part of a joint venture between Becamex and the Singaporean company Semcorp.

East-West Manufacturingwho began to source from China Over 20 years ago, now has eight global facilities and four in the United States. He established a Binh Duong representative office in 2003 to produce PVC, rubber and industrial textile products, quickly realizing the need for a wholly-owned factory.

A 60,000 square foot building was put in place initially, followed by two others of the same size adjacent to the original location. Two more came later, with solar panels, and a sixth facility is in the works that could be a few hundred thousand square feet. East West employs 1,500 people across Binh Duong, where the government has been hospitable to its growth plans.

“ID say that our operation in Vietnam is clearly our flagship,” said Scott Ellyson, the co-founder and CEO of East West, who spoke at the Dec. 2 forum. With its competitive cost structure and a management team that has slowly been largely localized, Vietnam is now playing a role in the development of new products by East West, in particular a new fractional horsepower engine that Mr. Ellyson says will be the driving equivalent of switching to LEDs. lighting from incandescent bulbs – although the effects may be greater, as motors consume a substantial portion of US electricity, especially in heating, cooling and industrial processes.

“We think we have a really great solution to not only reduce costs, but also improve our environment,” Ellyson said. “We developed this engine in collaboration between our Vietnamese and American teams, and we will manufacture this engine in Vietnam.”

He thanked the government for its help during the pandemic, noting that while Vietnam avoided the first wave that hit much of Asia, when it hit the government prioritized vaccines for workers. , helping factories quickly get back on track.

“Indeed, 100% of our employees in the Vietnamese factory are vaccinated, so that’s fantastic and we’re running it at full speed and focusing on growth,” he said.

The Thi Hai Vaneconomic counselor at the Vietnamese Embassy in the United States, gave an overview of the investment environment in Vietnam, a nation of 100 million people, while Bill Dao, North American representative of Becamex Vietnam, deepened the specifics of the benefits of the province.

According to Dao, Binh Duong had more than 4,000 foreign investment projects, comprising a stock of more than 37 billion dollars, the majority in the manufacturing sector spread across 29 industrial parks. The province exported $28.8 billion in the previous year, accounting for 10% of Vietnam’s total exports; now it is trying to move up the value chain with a new science and technology park.

Learn more about Becamex here.

Watch the full video from the previous forum here:

See the full August 8 program Vietnam: Gateway to Southeast Asia program below:

Vietnam’s gateway to Southeast Asia – leaflet (4)