Direct foreign investment advantages and disadvantages

Thoughts return to stronger rail options. Source: freepik.com Although the Ever Given container ship was rescued one week after being stranded in the Suez Canal in Egypt, the trading world remains rocked as hundreds of billions of US dollars has evaporated in the wake of the global trade system significantly relying on this narrow canal. The incident has also posed questions on developing other transportation channels, in which trans-continental rail routes may be top of the list. “One of the most effective channels is to develop a rail route running through Asia and Europe. This would be very good for exporters in Vietnam,” said Tran Thanh Hai, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Agency of Foreign Trade. It is now recommended that exporters should consider and take advantage of the current rail route connecting Vietnam through China to Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, and Germany. From Germany, the goods can be transported to other European markets. Currently if goods are transported via this rail route, it would take a month from Vietnam to Germany, with a cost of $8,000-9,000 per container, which is higher than the $6,000-8,000 for sea transportation which can take up to 50 days. However, the existing difficulty is the difference in railway widths and also standards of the trains themselves. The width of Vietnam’s railways is one metre, while that of other nations is around 1.4m. Moreover, trains in Vietnam cannot accommodate a huge volume of goods at the same time – each train can carry a maximum of 90 tonnes of goods for 15 compartments. If exporters want their goods transported by trains from Vietnam to overseas markets, they will have to change trains many times, meaning higher costs. These factors currently make it difficult for Vietnam to boost the transportation of goods by train to other international markets. Kazakhstani Ambassador to Vietnam Yerlan Baizhanov previously told VIR that Kazakhstan, China, and …

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Vietnam, as the rotating President of the UNSC, held this event virtually and in person under the chair of Minister Son. Attending the discussion were UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, nine ministers and deputy ministers, ambassadors and heads of missions of the UNSC member states. The event’s speakers included Director of the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining Stefano Toscano, UNDP Goodwill Ambassador actress Yeoh Choo-Kheng, Manager of Project RENEW All-Women Demining Team in Vietnam Nguyen Thi Dieu Linh, and UN Global Advocate for the Elimination of Mines and Explosive Hazards actor Daniel Craig. The event also saw the presence of officials from Vietnamese ministries, departments, and localities badly affected by war-left bombs, mines and explosives; representatives from the embassies of the UNSC member states, UN organizations, and domestic and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on mine action. At the event, delegates highly valued Vietnam’s initiative on the organization of  such an important meeting. They voiced their support  for the humanitarian purpose of limiting the use of bombs and mines in the world. They emphasized the consequences of bombs and mines in conflict areas in the past and present. They also voiced their support for national and international efforts to settle consequences of bombs and mines and unexploded ordnance, assist victims, and stabilize the situation for reconstruction and socio-economic development. Delegates highly praised international cooperation in mine action and stressed the need to boost cohesion and coordination within the UN system, including the UNSC, in order to make more contributions to the UN and relevant countries’ mine action efforts. In his speech, Minister Son highlighted the importance of settling the consequences of wars and conflicts and said that this issue should be paid more attention to in the UNSC agenda. The Vietnamese official shared Vietnam’s …

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However, this region is showing signs of neglect and decline in recent times. In a talk with Saigon Investment, Dr. NGUYEN DINH CUNG, former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, shared his view on this issue. JOURNALIST: - Sir, there are many opinions that the Southern Economic Region is facing many bottlenecks, which are limiting its ability to accelerate in growth, such as a deteriorating infrastructure, overload of urban transport, and increasing environmental pollution. What is your opinion on this state of decline and related issues? Dr. NGUYEN DINH CUNG: - First of all, in terms of a region, frankly speaking, it is just an accumulation of neighboring localities, with no significant links. All regional activities are just superficial. The localities have no motivation, and no need to coordinate and connect into becoming a strong economic zone. One obvious reason is that the same socio-economic indicators are applied to all localities. Thus, local governments have to compete with each other to attract investments, to take care of their home province first, so they have no need to connect with the neighboring provinces. For example, connecting Ho Chi Minh City with Vung Tau is a number one priority for these two provinces, but may not be the number one priority for Dong Nai province. Likewise, connecting Tay Ninh with Ho Chi Minh City may be the number one priority of Tay Ninh, but Ho Chi Minh City has many other concerns that need to be addressed first. In brief, Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces in the Southern Economic Region have not yet created organic links to become a unified entity. They have not created links with other regions and localities as well, so it is not possible to take advantage of regional relations to create a development momentum for the whole region. For example, Ho Chi Minh City is next to two major industrial and manufacturing centers, Binh Duong and Dong Nai, but the leading service industry of Ho …

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