Foreign investment funds want Vietnam to increase its ownership rate of airports and seaports

This proposal was raised by Mr. Kim Fejer, CEO of AP Moller Capital, at a seminar on investment in high-tech development in Vietnam, on January 21, in Davos, Switzerland. The event attracted more than 30 of the world’s leading corporations in the fields of technology, investment, and semiconductors to participate, on the occasion of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s attendance at the 5th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) Conference. 55.

Mr. Kim Fejer, CEO of AP Moller Capital, said the group is looking for investment opportunities and partners in infrastructure, transportation and logistics projects in Vietnam. AP Moller Capital is a subsidiary of AP Moller Group that owns a $2 billion investment portfolio, including the world’s leading shipping company Maersk.

However, Mr. Fejer proposed that Vietnam raise the foreign capital ownership limit in important infrastructure sectors such as airports and seaports. Currently, the ownership “room” with foreign investors at the airport and seaport is 30% and 49%, respectively.

“We want to have more business areas and influence in Vietnam, so we hope the Government can consider loosening this ownership ratio,” Mr. Kim Fejer said.

Agreeing, the leader of Schneider Electric – a French multinational corporation in the fields of automation and smart infrastructure – said that Vietnam needs more breakthroughs in developing transport infrastructure, airports and ports. sea. The participation of foreign investors will contribute to helping Vietnam realize this goal.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said he “seriously noted and will study the proposal to increase the proportion of foreign capital in the airport and seaport sectors” of investors. Because according to him, this is to attract more resources to invest in infrastructure in the future.

Minister Dung added that Vietnam is making efforts to reform the environment and investment procedures to become a safe and competitive destination compared to other countries in the region.

He cited that with investment procedures for high-tech industries in industrial parks, foreign investors only need to register and can do so immediately. This is different from before, when they had to spend 2-3 years waiting for investment approval, appraisal of environmental impact assessment procedures (EIA), fire prevention… “Standards and regulations for carrying out procedures available, the management agency only checks post-mortem,” he stated.

According to the Government’s plan, financial centers in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang will be established and operated in 2025. The construction of these centers aims to develop Vietnam into an important financial destination in the region, world.

Mr. Roger Leitner, Chairman and General Director of the ASEAN-Swiss Chamber of Commerce, said that Vietnam can develop a financial center by opening the door for the world’s leading financial institutions to develop digital assets and Cooperate with local private banks.

“Vietnam is completely capable of becoming an international financial center similar to Switzerland, Singapore and the UAE,” Mr. Leitner assessed.

In this aspect, Minister of Planning & Investment Nguyen Chi Dung shared that Vietnam wants to develop an international financial center in accordance with international practices, but more competitive with other countries.

“We will provide what you need, not what Vietnam has,” Mr. Dung shared, adding that Vietnam needs participation in policy contributions and experience sharing from foreign businesses.

In fact, when building a policy framework for financial centers, the Ministry of Planning and Investment also proposed controlled testing of fintech activities, including cryptocurrency and digital asset exchanges in financial centers such as Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City.

In addition to developing regional and international financial services, science and technology are identified as an important driving force to help Vietnam achieve its double-digit economic growth target in the coming years. FPT Chairman Truong Gia Binh said this goal will be realized by Vietnam through the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), digital transformation, semiconductors and education.

“This is the wish, as well as the requirement of the entire political system,” Mr. Binh said, adding that large domestic technology enterprises such as Viettel and VNPT must also commit to what they can do for Vietnam in the future. next time.

Along with that, according to FPT Chairman, Vietnam is in a favorable position in the field of science and technology. Evidence for this is that Nvidia recently chose Vietnam as an investment location as its homeland and second home.

According to the plan, after purchasing VinBrain (Vingroup’s artificial intelligence company) in early December 2024, Nvidia plans to establish an Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Center (Vietnam Research and Development Center – VRDC) and AI Data Center in Vietnam. These two facilities are expected to be the foundation to help the chip company and its domestic partners deploy advanced AI.

At the discussion, Schneider Electric leaders also said they wanted to cooperate with Nvidia to develop data centers in Vietnam.

Investors generally believe that this is the ideal time for Vietnam to build the future of artificial intelligence, when it owns 1 million information technology engineers and deploys a training program for 50,000 semiconductor and system engineers. Good educational system in this field.

“Vietnam has a ‘unique’ position to become a developed country in the region. The government should increase connectivity and open up AI data warehouses to develop even more strongly,” said the regional President. Asia-Pacific Google Sanjay Gupta shares.