Investing Climate in Vietnam Begins to Stabilize.

Byline: Achara Ashayagachat

Aug. 4--Vietnam now offers good opportunities for Thai investors after years of soul-searching by both foreign investors and the Vietnamese government has brought a more transparent and predictable business climate, according to a long-time resident of Ho Chi Minh City.

Walter Blocker, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Vietnam's southern economic hub, said that in many ways the Thai and Vietnamese economies were complementary, and that Thai entrepreneurs had a unique understanding of emerging and developing markets such as Vietnam.

Thai investors should take advantage of the good relations between the two countries and the more stable and open Vietnamese leadership, Mr Blocker said at a seminar co-organised by the Thai Board of Investment and Foreign Ministry and the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of Vietnam last week.

The climate, he said, had gradually shifted from irrationality and exuberance ten years ago from foreign investors who were not realistic about the country that had just opened up to foreign investors to a soul-searching period in which investors weighed whether to pack up while the socialist government had to ask themselves if, and at what speed, they wanted to pursue economic reforms.