Vietnam creates more opportunities for European investors, says Phuc

The country has also been encouraging renovation ideas and giving priority to high and environmental-friendly technologies, climate change adaptation, and State-owned enterprise restructuring,

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Vietnam is working hard to build a constructive and upright government to serve people and businesses, while focusing on completing institutions, improving governance capacity, and bringing more opportunities to all enterprises, including investors from Europe.

Speaking at the "Meet Europe 2018" conference in Hanoi, PM Phuc said Vietnam is striving to rank in ASEAN's top group and achieve high standards in the business environment, while strictly implementing commitments in intellectual property protection.

The country has also been encouraging renovation ideas and giving priority to high and environmental-friendly technologies, climate change adaptation, and State-owned enterprise restructuring,

He further said that reform measures have been implemented in all 63 cities and provinces where European investors and businesses have been or will be running investment projects.

The Government leader said that European partners are leading foreign investors in Vietnam with a total investment of nearly USD 25 billion, and the country's biggest provider of non-refundable aid, while two-way trade rose five times in the 2006-2017 period, exceeding 50 billion USD last year.

PM Phuc said that Vietnam and Europe, with supplementary relations, are pinning high hope on stronger and more extensive partnership. The 93-million strong market of Vietnam, with 13 percent of them being middle-class people, has seen increasing purchase power and strong startup movement.

The PM stressed that Vietnam always highly values investment and business operations of more than 2,000 European firms in Vietnam, especially in areas where Vietnam has demand and European firms have advantages such as infrastructure development, seaport, airport, airport, urban transport, energy, electricity, oil and gas, agriculture, tourism, and health.

Miriam Garcia Ferrer, Head of the Economic and Trade Section of the European Union Delegation to Vietnam, said that Vietnam is a leading ASEAN partner and one of the most important markets of the EU, stressing that the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) will contribute to the enhancement of bilateral trade relations.