Eddie Ahman, General Director of Ericsson Viet Nam, said that in order to make money in Viet Nam, foreign investors should make long-term commitments in the country.

Following is the full text of the interview by a Viet Nam News Agency reporter with Eddie Ahman:

What do you think about the economic impacts after Viet Nam joins the World Trade Organisation (WTO)?

I have been to Viet Nam for one year and seen fantastic development in the country. What I see is the increasing and growing economy, just looking at the GDP growth, it is ranked second after China in Asia. Becoming a member of WTO has a lot of challenges but more opportunities for a country like Viet Nam. The challenge is that once you open up your economy to the rest of the world, the competition will be fiercer, but on the other hand, you also open up the worldwide market for the Vietnamese products. In the telecom sector specifically, I believe in the years to come more operators will enter the country and try to get a piece of this cake because the Viet Nam’s telecom market is one of the few now in the world that are not yet internationalised by foreign operators. Therefore, I see that at least 15 foreign operators that are standing by to get the piece of this cake and with foreign operators you will get the cash injection into the area, which just boosts the endeavor for development even further. With WTO, you just open the door and I think there will be a fantastic rush in years to come in all industries.

Do you see Viet Nam’s WTO accession as an opportunity or challenge for Ericsson’s business activities here? What are your future plans in order to make full use of Viet Nam’s entry into WTO?

It is an opportunity for Ericsson and all other companies doing business in Viet Nam even when the competition will be fiercer by the day. Competition is to me also an opportunity as it creates a bigger market, so I see and believe the opportunity and market in Viet Nam will be growing and it will be big for all the competitors. I strongly believe that Ericsson will continue to be one of the leaders. In order to prepare for it, we have to do many things, one is that we have to continue to build the local competence. We are adding more and more local employees in order to keep up with the demand of the operators. What we will also do during next year is to become a local company, we are still a representative office in Viet Nam and we are in the process of becoming a local company in Viet Nam.

As a foreign investor doing business in Viet Nam, how do you comment on the Vietnamese Government’s efforts to improve investment environment?

As I have been here for only one year, I don’t have much experience of what has been done in the past, but what I have seen in this year is that the Vietnamese government is working hard on making Viet Nam a more open society and more friendly to international investors. You can see the amount of direct foreign investment (FDI) into the country is really exploding now and also there are so many foreign companies that are establishing themselves in Viet Nam because they see the untapped market potential. So I think the Vietnamese government is doing everything they can to support and they are fully aware of what they need to do. Of course in all countries that open up their markets, there are still some hurdles, obstacles, problems, frustration for companies to establish themselves. When I meet foreign companies from many countries that are here to look around for opportunities, I always tell them that first of all, to do business in countries like Viet Nam, it is so fruitful but you have to have patience, it will take some time. There is still some bureaucracy in establishing a company but you need to work long term in a country like Viet Nam. I think whatever the Vietnamese government doing today that you would see the fruits in the years to come. I am very optimistic about the future of Viet Nam.

There is now a trend of foreign investors flocking to Viet Nam , in your opinion what are the major factors in Viet Nam that are attractive to foreign investors? It’s forecast that there will be a new wave of FDI in the Viet Nam after the country’s WTO accession, how do you comment on this issue?

I don’t have the history but reading papers and talking to some other companies, I believe one of the important factors is that the salary level in Viet Nam is lower in comparison with other countries in the region. And also the competence level seems to be higher in Viet Nam in some areas specifically in the information technology industry. So I think these are the two factors that do attract the foreign investors.

I fully agree that the membership of WTO will boost the development but even without WTO, during this year I have seen tremendous interest from the foreign business community and WTO to me makes it just easier to get in and work in the Vietnamese market. Meeting colleagues in the telecom industry and even in other industries that are here in Ha Noi, I get the feeling that everyone is eager, waiting to get started waiting for a big race.

Source: Vietnam Agency