For Immediate Release: September 14, 2007
Contact: Matt Braud (202) 482-3447
Commerce Announces Dialogue To Enhance Trade And Investment
WASHINGTON - Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing Jamie Estrada will lead an interagency delegation to Hanoi, Vietnam on September 18, 2007, for the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-Vietnam Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Commercial Dialogue. The dialogue aims to enhance trade and investment in products and services in the ICT sector in Vietnam.
“This meeting in Hanoi is the first of what we hope to be a series of meetings between the U.S. and Vietnam on Information and Communication Technology issues over the next several years,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary Estrada. “By bringing together industry and government leaders from both the United States and Vietnam, we expect to have a very constructive dialogue to enhance trade and investment between our Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industries.”
The delegation will include representatives from the Department of State, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the United States Agency for International Development and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. These delegates, along with representatives from the ICT industry will meet with representatives of the Vietnamese government led by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
In conjunction with this event, ITA is publishing a report, Vietnam: The Next Frontier for Trade in Asia – Key Issues for the Information and Communications Technology Sector. The report details the current ICT trade relationship between the U.S. and Vietnam and outlines six key areas for improvement, including: telecommunications infrastructure; network security; IT skills and training; software; electronic commerce; and government procurement of ICT products and services. The full report is available at http://export.gov/infotech.
In July, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez announced that he would lead a business development mission to Vietnam on November 4-8, 2007. The mission will highlight export opportunities for U.S. businesses, and is the first Secretarial Business Development mission to visit Vietnam. In 2006, U.S. companies exported nearly $93 million in ICT products to Vietnam.
Background With a GDP of $61 billion and a population of 84 million, Vietnam is one of the newest members of the WTO and one of the fastest growing economies in Asia. Since the signing of the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement in 2001, two-way goods trade has increased from about $1.5 billion to $9.7 billion. Total U.S. merchandise exports to Vietnam in 2006 were $1.1 billion. Year-to-date through July 2007, U.S. exports totaled $889 million, growing 65.1 percent over the same period last year.
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