1. Penetrating Mekong Delta Region via Vietnam & ThailandBy
Loretta Wan – Regional Director of South East Asia & India
Tina Phan – Director, Vietnam
Hong Kong Trade Development Council

2. Mekong Delta Region

3. Overview Strong characters of each markets in the region.
Liberalizing economies.
Opening up trade.
Commitment to regional approaches.
Growth and development prospects are promising.

4. Infrastructure improvement to more trade in the region

5. Main Infrastructure Projects
1st Mekong Bridge (Cambodia-VN) would help to boost trade in the country and improve links with Laos, Vietnam and the Mekong region.
2nd Mekong Bridge: an important part of the East-West Corridor linking Vietnam, Laos, Thailand & Myanmar.

6. Opportunities opened in GMS
Exporters - importers
Logistics companies, freight forwarders, shippers, transport operators
Insurance underwriters
Political risk insurers in both the Greater Mekong Sub region (GMS) and the neighboring countries.

7. Vietnam – Gateway to Mekong Delta Region
Geography location.
Most crowded population in the region (about 82 mil by 2005).
Ports in Central of Vietnam will be gateways to a huge hinterland of the region.
A stable socio-political environment.

8. Vietnam An Emerging Market for Hong Kong Companies
Hochiminh City Branch Office
Hong Kong Trade Development Council

9. ECONOMIC OUTLOOK (The first 9 months of 2005) · GDP Growth rate  8.1%
·        Exports USD 23.5 billion 21.1%
·        Imports USD 27.4 billion 19.2%
·        Trade deficit US$ 3.89 billion
·        Consumer Price Index  6.8 %
·        FDI (overall) US$ 4.09 billion 37.5%
- 570 new projects with US$ 2.64 billion capital, the rest has gone into 167 existing projects.
- From Hong Kong: US$ million with 26 projects

10. EMERGING POLICIES Economic restructure is underway in a
positive direction into the world economy
integration:
Stimulate Foreign Investment into Vietnam
Government has issued a number of measures to liberalize the market
Vietnam fines tune law to WTO principles
4. With the high hope to join WTO by end of the year, Vietnam is now scheduled to approve more than 20 laws and ordinances to meet the requirements made by Members of the Working Party to WTO this year.
They are: Civil Code (amended), Commercial Law (amended), Education Law (amended), Law on Tourism, Intellectual Property Law, Law on Import-Export Duties (amended), Law on Enterprise, Law on Investment, and Law on Anti-Corruption…

11. MARKET TREND More foreign owned retailed up-markets opened
Active parallel import at border region
Vietnamese consumers are very “brand-conscious”
Adoption franchising concept or looking for product licensing

12. Challenges for Hong Kong companies
Impact of ASEAN’s Common Effect in Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme
Strong border trade between China & Vietnam
Direct competition with S. Korea
Pending of WTO member accession of Vietnam

13. Significance when Vietnam entering WTO
Higher Purchasing Power for medium-priced commodities.
Lower import tariff.
More open and transparent investment policies.
Trading rights.

14. Opportunities for Hong Kong companies (For Products)
 Suppliers of Raw Materials & Accessories
 Suppliers of machineries & equipment
 Suppliers of Electronics & electric appliances
 Suppliers of Gifts and Premium
 Suppliers of Cosmetics

15. Opportunities for Hong Kong companies (For Services)
 ICT
 Film & TV series
 Licensing & Franchising

16. Long-term Opportunities for Hong Kong companies
Setting up Production Facilities or Trading House
 Providing trade-related services eg. Knowhow, Management & Marketing skills, sourcing, trade-finance……

17. Thank you!

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