Vietnam opens up huge and diversified business prospect for India

Kolkata, Mar 7: The recent two-day visit of a high power business delegation to Vietnam accompanying West Bengal Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee has opened up immense possibilities for enhancing bileteral trade and investment with that country and the whole of ASEAN region, felt the delegation members.

The nine-member team, which interacted with a wide spectrum of business and political leadership in Vietnam during their visit to Ho Chi Minh city from March three to five comprised Mr Rajive Kaul, Chairman, Nicco Corporation, Mr Roopen Roy, Managing Director, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Mr Biswadip Gupta, Managing Director, Vesuvius India Limited, Mr Samir Kumar Ghosh, Managing Director, India Potteries Limited, Mr Nazeeb Arif, Secretary General, Indian Chamber of Commerce,Mr Rajarshi Banerji, Director Razban Seafood Limited, Mr Debasish Mitra, Managing Director, Calypso Foods Limited, Mr Subrata Mukherjee,Managing Director&CEO, ICICI Securities and Mr Ravi Poddar,Chairman, Ravi Auto Limited.

Sharing their "rich" experience about their two-day exploratory visit to Vietnam with the media here today, the delegation members said the primary purpose of the visit was to initiate an institutional framework to strengthen business relations with the country, besides enhancing trade, investment and service sector co-operation between the two regions.

" The visit was very constructive and purposeful and achieved an important milestone in furthering our bilateral economic relations, " they said.

Stating that the growth of economy of Vietnam was "remarkable" in the past few years with "unlimited business opportunities" existing for West Bengal, they said Vietnam with only about 83 million people had now become a hub for a wide range of business opportunity in the whole of ASEAN region.

The nation growing at the rate of 8.4 per cent per annum had a consistent growth of manufacturing over 12 per cent in the past few years, they said.

India and specially West Bengal could provide immense economic opportunities in Vietnam given the booming market, the delegation observed and said the areas of cooperation included IT, biotechnology, agro and food processing, two-wheelers, garments, education and advanced training in english language, urban development, construction, iron&steel, chemicals and lifestyle sectors.

Vietnam's unique positioning near China, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand spelt significant opportunities for business in West Bengal, members of the delegation pointed out.

Outlining the areas of cooperation in the areas of Information Technology and human capital development, Mr Roopen Roy said India and West Bengal could provide advanced IT training, collaborate in specific areas of the IT&ITES sectors and also help companies in Vietnam move up the value chain in IT applications.

Vietnam had expressed significant interest in collaborating in the bio-technology sector.

Mr Rajive Kaul, setting up the NICCO Institute of Biotechnology in West Bengal as a centre of excellence, had offered to reserve five seats for qualifying science graduates from Vietnam. He also announced that the best student, out of the five admitted, would receive a full scholarship from Nicco,as a gesture of support to the growing relations between West Bengal and Vietnam.

Mr Kaul also emphasised that cooperation to develop bio-technology in the agricultural sector to build on the agriculture advantages of both West Bengal and Vietnam would be of immense interest to both the nations.

UNI