$30bn investments committed during Vietnam PM’s Europe business trip

Nearly 60 deals worth US$30 billion in investment commitments were signed by Vietnamese enterprises and their foreign partners during a recent European business trip taken by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his entourage, according to Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung.

Dung unveiled the number on Saturday as he briefed reporters on PM Chinh’s official trip, including his attendance at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) and visits to the UK and France.

The tour from October 31 to November 5 was made at the invitation of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French Prime Minister Jean Castex.

These deals, signed in the presence of the prime minister and foreign dignitaries, focused on renewable energy, digital economy, environment protection, infrastructure development, aerospace industry, health and epidemic prevention and control, education, agriculture and tourism, and others, which are Vietnam’s priorities in foreign investment attraction, Deputy Minister Dung said.

Vietnam’s private conglomerate T&T Group signed a major memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the UK’s leading international financial institution Standard Chartered, T&T chairman Do Quang Hien, a member of the PM’s entourage, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper during the flight back to Hanoi from Paris.

Pursuant to this MoU, Standard Chartered will lend $6 billion to T&T’s projects in the environment, waste treatment, LNG power, and renewable energy sectors.

In the coming time, Vietnamese economic groups and their European partners will further promote renewable energy projects, Hien said. 

“They have advanced technologies and actively expressed their desires to invest in Vietnam,” he said.

“They have been encouraged by PM Chinh’s commitments to further cut down carbon dioxide emissions in order to achieve Vietnam’s zero-emission target by 2050.”

Among the other prominent deals is a $400 million agreement on providing engines and engine servicing for the airline between Vietnamese budget carrier Vietjet and the UK’s Rolls-Royce.

Another is an MoU worth £155 million ($212,000) on cooperation and investment in education research and development between Vietnam’s SOVICO Group and the University of Oxford.

Ho Chi Minh City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank (HDBank) and Affinity Equity Partners, an Indonesia-based investment fund, also inked a $300 million cooperation deal on mobilizing capital to finance Vietnam’s projects in sustainable development and climate change response.

PM Chinh had nearly 40 meetings with more than 60 executives of leading corporations, banks, and universities in Europe, including the UK and France, while leaders of various Vietnamese ministries contacted some 50 large corporations to discuss their current agreements as well as cooperation opportunities in the future.

Attending two business forums in the UK and France during this period, nearly 450 leading businesses from the UK, France, and other European countries said they were inspired by the prime minister’s message that Vietnam has basically put the COVID-19 pandemic at bay and adopted a strategy of living safely with the coronavirus.

Regarding COVID-19 vaccine assistance, the French government announced an additional donation of 1.4 million doses to Vietnam through bilateral channels and the COVAX Facility, bringing its total free vaccine provision for the Southeast Asian country to more than two million shots.

Meanwhile, a contract to buy 25 million more doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine was signed between Vietnam Vaccine Joint Stock Company and the Anglo-Swedish company, bringing the total contractual volume to 55 million vaccine jabs.

The Vietnamese company previously bought 30 million AstraZeneca vaccine shots, of which over 20 million doses have been delivered while the rest are expected to arrive in November.

The PM’s trip took place as Vietnam’s daily new COVID-19 infections and deaths have sharply fallen recently, to 7,491 and 58 on Saturday from 12,481 and 311 two months earlier, according to the Ministry of Health’s data.

Since erupting in the Southeast Asian country in early 2020, the pandemic has caused 961,038 infection cases, including 839,101 recoveries and 22,470 fatalities.

By Vinh Tho – Tuoi Tre News – November 7, 2021