SpaceX, Netflix, Boeing to join ‘biggest US company mission to Vietnam’

HANOI, March 17 (Reuters) – SpaceX, Netflix and Boeing are amongst businesses joining the “largest ever” U.S. company mission to Vietnam subsequent week to talk about investment and sales possibilities in the booming Southeast Asian nation, the organizer stated. .

Additional than 50 businesses, such as defense, pharmaceutical and technologies firms, will participate in the mission organized by the US-ASEAN Company Council, an business physique, according to a list noticed by Reuters.

The delegation is a sign of increasing interest in the worldwide manufacturing hub, which is benefiting from a shift away from China amid Sino-US trade friction.

Vietnam, with a population of one hundred million folks, also has a rapidly-increasing customer marketplace as its middle class expands.

“This is the largest mission ever in Vietnam,” stated Vu Tu Thanh, the US-ASEAN Company Council representative in the nation, noting that the physique has been organizing these events for 3 decades.

Giant Netflix ( NFLX.O ), which Reuters reported final month planned to open an workplace in Vietnam, is amongst the businesses joining the trip. Netflix did not respond to a request for comment.

Aerospace makers Boeing ( BA.N ), Lockheed Martin ( LMT.N ) and Bell ( TKST.N ) will hold meetings with state-owned Vietnamese defense procurement businesses, Thanh told Reuters, adding it was the initially time in about a decade that safety businesses decided to join the annual mission in Vietnam.

In December, the very same businesses held talks with Vietnamese government officials about the feasible sale of helicopters and drones, as the nation seeks new suppliers and the conflict in Ukraine strains the capabilities of Russia, Vietnam’s major military companion for decades.

“Helicopters are a single of the factors that the businesses are hoping to sell to the Vietnamese,” Tan stated, even though he cautioned that defense offers will take time to total and no quick progress is anticipated.

Boeing stated in a statement that its discussions with officials will concentrate on its increasing partnership with Vietnam and approaches to strengthen the country’s aerospace and defense capabilities.

Lockheed Martin and Bell did not respond to requests for comment.

Most of the businesses joining the company mission currently have a company or manufacturing presence in Vietnam, such as Apple ( AAPL.O ), Coca-Cola ( KO.N ) and PepsiCo ( PEP.O ), Thanh stated, with some plans to expand. .

Some businesses are also coming to improved have an understanding of the political scenario right after current turmoil in the Communist Celebration-run nation, such as the resignation of the president in January, Tan added.

Participants will have meetings with Vietnam’s prime political and regulatory leadership, such as Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Tan stated some businesses are interested in Vietnam as a manufacturing hub and to serve increasingly affluent buyers at a time when financial development reached much more than eight % final year.

Amongst them is SpaceX, which desires to sell its satellite Web solutions to Vietnam and other nations in the area, Thanh stated. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

The mission will also include things like semiconductor businesses, pharmaceutical giants Pfizer ( PFE.N ) and Johnson & Johnson ( PFE.N ), health-related device maker Abbott ( ABT.N ), economic firms Visa ( VN ) and Citibank ( CN ), online and cloud businesses Meta ( META.O ) and Amazon Net Solutions ( AMZN.O ), the list showed.

Reporting by Francesco Guarascio Editing by Jamie Freed

Our Requirements: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Francesco Guarascio

Thomson Reuters

Francesco leads a group of journalists in Vietnam covering main economic and political news in the rapidly-increasing Southeast Asian nation with a concentrate on provide chains and manufacturing investments in numerous sectors, such as electronics, semiconductors, automotive and renewable power. Ahead of Hanoi, Francesco worked in Brussels on EU affairs. He was also aspect of Reuters’ core worldwide group covering the COVID-19 pandemic and participating in dollars laundering and corruption investigations in Europe. He is an eager traveler, usually wanting to pack his backpack to discover new locations.