Vietnam president vows to improve business climate

WASHINGTON, June 21 (Reuters) Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet signed a trade and investment pact with the United States today and vowed to improve the business climate in the fast-growing Southeast Asian communist state.

Triet, on the second leg of a trip that marks the first visit to the United States by a postwar Vietnamese head of state, said it was ''passe'' for Americans to associate his country with the war between the two countries when it is now wide open for business.

''We'll widely open our arms to welcome you,'' he said through a translator in a luncheon speech to the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

But Triet said that while more than a decade of reforms and entry into the World Trade Organization this year had opened Vietnam's economy, there was still ''much to be desired'' in the one-party country's business climate.

''It is our determination to improve the overall business environment for businessmen and investors,'' he said.

He later joined Deputy US Trade Representative Karan Bhatia in signing a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) designed to open more markets and streamline business.

Microsoft Corp also signed pacts under which a Vietnamese bank and other state agencies committed to install genuine software on their computers to combat rampant piracy, which has been an irritant in the 9.7 billion dollars annual bilateral trade relationship.

Triet is the first president to visit the United States, Vietnam's former enemy, since the war ended in 1975 and the communists reunited the country. In 2005, then-Prime Minister Phan Van Khai visited Washington to mark a decade since ties were normalized.

Triet said he would meet President George W Bush in Washington on Friday for talks that would ''elevate our relations to a new height'' following up on Bush's visit to Hanoi last November.

The Vietnamese leader was slated to visit the US Congress on Thursday for talks with House of Representatives majority leader Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers.

Vietnamese democracy activists visited Pelosi a day earlier and asked the California Democrat to urge Triet to uphold freedom of speech, religion and assembly and to free about 20 political activists who were detained or put on trial since Vietnam hosted an Asia-Pacific summit last November.

''In the long run, a free and democratic Vietnam will be a much more reliable partner than a communist one,'' said Diem H Do, chairman of the Vietnam Reform Party, a group banned in one-party Vietnam but active among overseas Vietnamese communities.

Triet began is his trip in New York and is scheduled to visit California after two days in the US capital.

REUTERS RKM BST0132