Ambassador meets Deputy Director General of Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) of Viet Nam

Ambassador Prof. Mendis met Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Deputy Director General of Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), the second senior most official of FIA, which is equivalent to the BOI of Sri Lanka. The Minister Commercial, Ms Kishani Wickramasinghe, of the Embassy was associated with Amb. Mendis at the meeting. Both parties discussed about the strategies used by Viet Nam for attracting Foreign Investments, which could be a learning curve for Sri Lanka as well. Simplification of administration procedure, improved legal framework, a task force headed by Prime Minister to solve any challenges of investors at the earliest possible and continuously looking after investors, integration through FTAs, development of infrastructure, location, skilled labor at highly competitive rates, low cost of production, are some of the reasons for Viet Nam to be attractive destination for foreign investors. Further, Mr. Tuan extended his cooperation and consideration in promoting bilateral investments between the two countries in terms of organizing webinars, exchanging delegations, providing any expert knowledge from Viet Nam for sharing their experiences etc., Ambassador proposed Sri Lanka to complement with Viet Nam in the value supply chain in the sphere of FDIs and not to be a competitor and Mr. Tuan promised his utmost support for this proposition. Further, Mr. Tuan said Sri Lanka and Viet Nam could be the bridge connecting between South Asia and South East Asia. In other words, both the countries are strategically located and has immense untapped potential in the realm of commerce, trade, manufacturing and economics to be rapidly developing nations in the foreseeable future.