Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien works with leading US corporations

Scene of the working session between Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and leaders of Excelerate Energy Group (USA)

Continuing his working program in the US, on May 20, Minister of Industry and Trade, Head of the Government Negotiation Delegation Nguyen Hong Dien met and worked with leaders of Excelerate Energy, Lockheed Martin, Space X and Google.

At the working session with Excelerate Energy Group, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien affirmed that Vietnam encourages Excelerate to participate in developing infrastructure and the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market in Vietnam.

According to Power Plan VIII, to ensure national energy security, Vietnam will build 14 gas-fired power plants in the coming years.

Therefore, proactively supplying LNG is one of the top priorities. Vietnam is also creating favorable conditions for businesses trading in liquefied gas, including reducing the LNG import tax from 5% to 2%.

Mr. Peter Haas - Vice President of Excelerate Group proposed three specific cooperation directions: investing and developing LNG infrastructure; ensuring stable LNG supply; and establishing a joint venture with a Vietnamese partner to expand the market, aiming to make Vietnam become the LNG distribution center of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien highly appreciated Excelerate's proposal, noting that the group had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with PVGas on long-term LNG supply and exploitation of floating storage and regasification infrastructure for LNG (FSRU).

The fields that Excelerate is implementing such as supplying LNG from the US, leasing floating storage FSRUs and transferring regasification technology are all in line with Vietnam's energy development orientation in the coming time.

Scene of the working session between Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, Head of the Government's negotiation delegation, and leaders of Lockheed Martin Corporation

At a working session with Lockheed Martin Corporation - the world's leading manufacturer in the defense and aerospace sectors, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien highly appreciated the long-term, reliable and effective cooperation between Lockheed Martin and the Vietnamese telecommunications industry, demonstrated through successful projects such as the VINASAT-1 satellite project (2008) and VINASAT-2 (2012). Minister Nguyen Hong Dien emphasized that Vietnam is preparing a plan to launch a new generation satellite by the end of 2026.

Vietnam wishes to expand cooperation in potential areas such as aerospace, digital infrastructure development, strengthening space sovereignty and national telecommunications capacity.

At the same time, Vietnam wants to learn about flexible cooperation models and participate in Lockheed Martin's production supply chain in the future.

Representative of Lockheed Martin, Ms. Nancy Ziuzin, Vice President of International Government Affairs, Global Business Development and Strategy, highly appreciated the potential and strategic role of the Vietnamese market, affirming her commitment to accompany Vietnam's development in key areas such as aviation, space and defense technology.

The two sides agreed to strengthen the establishment of regular cooperation mechanisms, share information, and promote technology transfer projects.

Working session between Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and leaders of Space X Group

At the meeting with Space Exploration Technology Corporation, led by Vice President Tim Hughes, SpaceX affirmed its strong commitment to investing and developing telecommunications infrastructure in Vietnam through the project to deploy the Starlink satellite Internet service.

SpaceX will invest about $1.5 billion to provide broadband Internet connectivity nationwide, especially in remote, border and island areas.

It is expected that in the first phase, SpaceX will build 10 to 15 ground stations in Vietnam; at the same time, it is committed to providing modern, stable and reasonably priced telecommunications services, helping to improve the quality of connection for millions of Vietnamese people, especially in areas with difficult access to traditional networks.

SpaceX emphasizes that Vietnam is a strategic market in Starlink's global service expansion orientation.

Space X not only provides connectivity solutions but also wishes to accompany the Vietnamese Government in the digital transformation process, narrowing the digital gap between regions, and promoting socio-economic growth associated with high technology.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien highly appreciated SpaceX's investment plan and long-term commitment, saying that the Vietnamese Government is ready to create favorable conditions in terms of mechanisms and policies and is actively removing legal obstacles so that the project can be implemented on schedule.

At the same time, he suggested that SpaceX expand cooperation to areas such as information technology, clean energy and technology transfer, especially in training high-tech human resources. This is considered the foundation for sustainable digital infrastructure development in Vietnam.

Working session between Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and leaders of leading technology corporation Google

At a working session with Google Technology Corporation led by Mr. Karan Bhatia, Vice President of Government Relations and Public Policy of Google, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien acknowledged and highly appreciated Google's strategy in determining Vietnam's central role in the process of restructuring the global supply chain.

The Minister stressed that this is an important opportunity to promote the development of a sustainable, balanced and safe supply chain in the region.

At the same time, the Minister suggested that Google actively coordinate with domestic partners to assess the possibility of localizing input materials, as well as expanding and diversifying supply sources from countries in the region.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade pledges to support Google in connecting with domestic businesses, providing information and considering support policies on infrastructure, logistics and taxes if Google is determined to expand investment or improve supply chain capacity in Vietnam.

Google thanked Vietnam for its support for investment and business activities and pledged to accompany Vietnam in the current trade negotiations with the US.

At the meetings, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien asked large US corporations such as Excelerate, Lockheed Martin, Space X and Google with strong influence to help give opinions to the administration of President Donald Trump to convey Vietnam's message: "The comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and the US has been strongly promoted, creating favorable conditions for US companies to invest and do business in Vietnam. Therefore, cooperation with Vietnam will bring long-term strategic benefits and contribute to improving the trade balance towards fairness, harmony and sustainability between the two countries. Vietnam needs to be treated as a priority trade partner of the US. Vietnam asks the US to work with Vietnam to resolve current trade and economic problems, soon recognize Vietnam as a market economy and remove Vietnam from the D1, D3 list restricting the export of high-tech products. This will contribute to bringing practical benefits to the two countries in both the short and long term."

The above meetings were conducted during the second technical-level negotiation trip on the bilateral agreement on reciprocal trade between Vietnam and the US, held from May 19-22 in Washington, DC.

The Vietnamese negotiating delegation was led by Minister of Industry and Trade, Head of the Government Negotiating Delegation Nguyen Hong Dien, with the participation of representatives from ministries and sectors including: Public Security, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Construction, Home Affairs, Agriculture and Environment, Science and Technology, Justice and the State Bank.

VN (according to VNA)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/bo-truong-cong-thuong-nguyen-hong-dien-lam-viec-voi-cac-tap-doan-hang-dau-cua-my-412079.html