More and more Vietnamese businesses are digging deeper into the global market, shoveling funds into a variety of industries, ranging from agriculture and wholesale to technology and telecom.

Vietnamese companies invested a combined US$376.1 million in 149 new projects overseas in 2018, according to a report released by the Ministry of Planning and Investment on December 24, 2018.

So far in 2019, projects in 29 countries and territories have received nearly $200 million in capital from Vietnam enterprises, with Spain taking the lion’s share at 29.9 percent, followed by the U.S. 

Other countries which have received investments from Vietnam include Australia, Malaysia, South Africa, and Canada.

Science and technology seem to be the country’s most desirable overseas investments, accounting for 41 percent of the total, or $81.9 million, followed by finance and banking with $37.1 million. 

Rounding out the top three was media and communications with $31.7 million.

Gone are the days of Vietnamese businesses pouring money into neighboring markets such as Laos and Cambodia. Instead, local companies are hoping to cement a foothold in the global value chain by calling for strategic cooperation, raising foreign funding, overseas M&A, and building factories in developed countries.

A Movitel point of sales is located in Mozambique. Photo: T.Tung / Tuoi Tre

Dairy producer, telecom provider reaching out to world market

Among the Vietnamese companies making headways overseas is is NutiFood, a leading dairy producer, with partners from the U.S., Japan, and Europe.

Recently, NutiFood exported two million bottles of sterilized yogurt to the U.S. This is the second nutritious product the firm has sold to the American market since it introduced a ready-made milk powder for underweight children there.

NutiFood now sells its products at more than 300 supermarkets in California.

In May, the Vietnamese dairy producer and its Swedish partners, Swedish Backahill Company and Skånemejerier Ekonomisk Förening – a cooperative and one of Sweden's three largest producers of dairy products, opened a joint venture in the northern European country - NutiFood Sweden AB.

NutiFood Sweden AB is intended to bring Vietnamese dairy and organic nutrition products closer to European and other international markets.

In the technology and telecom sector, Movitel, a brand of Vietnam’s military-run telecoms giant Viettel in Mozambique, has been appointed by the World Bank (WB) as the developer of three projects – worth a combined $20.5 million– to improve life quality and access to financing for the low income residents in the African country.

According to Prof. Nguyen Mai, chairman of the Vietnam Association of Foreign Investment Enterprises, the trend of overseas investments by Vietnamese businesses isn’t expected to die down anytime soon, as many see it as an essential to their development.

In this context, relevant agencies need to strengthen administrative reforms related to foreign investment the process of moving money out of the country more convenient, he added.

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