SpaceX, Netflix, Boeing to join “greatest-ever” US business enterprise mission to Vietnam

HANOI, March 17 (Reuters) – SpaceX, Netflix and Boeing are amongst the organizations joining the “greatest-ever” U.S. business enterprise mission to Vietnam subsequent week to talk about investment and sales possibilities in the booming Southeast Asian nation, the organiser mentioned.

Much more than 50 organizations, which includes defence, pharmaceutical and tech firms, will participate in the mission organised by the US-ASEAN Organization 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-U.S. trade friction.

Vietnam, with a population of one hundred million people today, also has a swiftly-developing customer industry as its middle class expands.

“This is the greatest-ever mission in Vietnam,” mentioned Vu Tu Thanh, the US-ASEAN Organization Council’s representative in the nation, noting that the physique had been organising these events for 3 decades.

Streaming giant Netflix (NFLX.O), which Reuters final month reported was arranging to open an workplace in Vietnam, is amongst the organizations joining the trip. Netflix did not respond to a request for comment.

Aerospace producers Boeing (BA.N), Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) and Bell (TXT.N) will hold meetings with state-owned Vietnamese defence procurement organizations, Thanh told Reuters, adding that it was the 1st time in about a decade that safety firms had decided to join the annual mission to Vietnam.

In December, the identical organizations held talks with Vietnamese government officials about the feasible sale of helicopters and drones, as the nation seeks new suppliers and the Ukraine conflict strains the capabilities of Russia, for decades Vietnam’s most important military companion.

“Helicopters is a single of the items the organizations hope to sell to the Vietnamese,” Thanh mentioned, despite the fact that he cautioned that defence offers took time to be completed and no instant breakthrough was anticipated.

Boeing mentioned in a statement that its discussions with officials would concentrate on its developing partnership with Vietnam and techniques to strengthen the country’s aviation and defence capabilities.

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

The majority of the organizations joining the business enterprise mission currently have a business enterprise or manufacturing presence in Vietnam, which includes Apple (AAPL.O), Coca-Cola (KO.N) and PepsiCo (PEP.O), Thanh mentioned, with some arranging to expand it.

Some organizations are also coming to get a far better sense of the political scenario following current turmoil in the Communist-Celebration led nation, which includes the resignation of the president in January, Thanh added.

Participants will have meetings with Vietnam’s top rated political and regulatory leadership, which includes with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Thanh mentioned some organizations have been interested in Vietnam as a manufacturing hub and in offering solutions to increasingly wealthy shoppers at a time when financial development reached additional than eight% final year.

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

The mission will also include things like semiconductors organizations, pharmaceutical giants Pfizer (PFE.N) and Johnson &amp Johnson (PFE.N), healthcare device maker Abbott (ABT.N), monetary firms Visa (V.N) and Citibank (C.N), online and cloud organizations Meta (META.O) and Amazon Net Solutions (AMZN.O), the list showed.

Reporting by Francesco Guarascio Editing by Jamie Freed

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Francesco Guarascio

Thomson Reuters

Francesco leads a group of reporters in Vietnam that covers top rated monetary and political news in the quick-developing southeast Asian nation with a concentrate on provide chains and manufacturing investments in numerous sectors, which includes electronics, semiconductors, automotive and renewables. Prior to Hanoi, Francesco worked in Brussels on EU affairs. He was also portion of Reuters core worldwide group that covered the COVID-19 pandemic and participated in investigations into revenue laundering and corruption in Europe. He is an eager traveler, usually keen to place on a backpack to discover new areas.