From Myanmar to Cuba: Attraction from agricultural strength

Remember, after Myanmar opened up, a seismic wave of foreign investment poured into Myanmar. At that time, Myanmar was considered the last golden land for investment in Southeast Asia, so most investors such as China, Thailand, Singapore, Japan... all tried to "jump" in. In particular, Vietnamese investors are considered one of the foreign investors who are quite quick to "jump" into this market.

From the "earthquake" of Myanmar

It can be seen that, after more than 10 years of participating in the Myanmar market, Vietnamese enterprises are entering the early stages of the investment exploitation process when investment capital from Vietnam is flowing strongly into Myanmar. According to statistics from Myanmar as of February 2015, among the top 30 largest foreign investors in Myanmar, Vietnam ranked 9th in terms of investment scale. Among them, 7 major Vietnamese investment projects in Myanmar have been approved with registered investment capital of nearly 600 million USD. A typical example is Hoang Anh Gia Lai, this group is developing a Hotel - Office and Luxury Housing Complex, with a total capital of up to 440 million USD located in the heart of Yangon city. BIDV has also opened a representative office and is promoting investment activities in Myanmar...

Chairman of the National Assembly Thura U Shwe Mann said that Myanmar is focusing on institutional reform and opening the market to develop the economy and improve people's lives... Among them, it is worth mentioning that the Myanmar Government has made commitments to economic reform, focusing on macroeconomic areas to promote the process of comprehensive economic reform. For example, export tax decreased from 10% to 2%. Along with that, a series of financial institutions such as the WB and IMF have written off debt and refinanced. The US, EU, and Japanese governments... all lifted the ban on interviews with this country.

It can be seen that to attract FDI capital flows, the Myanmar Government offers many incentives to investors, such as 5-year tax incentives, land lease rights and no need to have a domestic partner to establish a business, ensuring no nationalization and allowing 100% capital transfer back to the country...

Myanmar has many natural strengths in the fields of oil and gas, agriculture, tourism... These can be considered Myanmar's "godsend" incentives. For example, the country's natural gas reserves are calculated at about 22.5 trillion cubic feet, showing huge potential. Or in agriculture, rice production is a strength of this country. Besides, possessing rich and diverse natural beauty, Myanmar is considered a destination for many tourists.

Go to the "golden land" of Cuba

Recalling the story of Myanmar to see, it seems that the actions of the Cuban Government from the beginning of 2015 until now are quite similar to what happened in Myanmar a few years ago. First of all, Cuba has announced negotiations to normalize relations with the US. What followed was a series of moves to bring these two countries closer together. In particular, the historic conversation between Cuban President Raul Castro and US President Barack Obama at the 7th Summit of the Americas held in Panama last April, is considered a "fire" that "thawed the ice" in the relationship between the two countries for nearly 6 decades.

It's about politics, but about economics, it is believed that there will be a large wave of investment from other countries pouring into Cuba in the near future as Cuba recently issued a new Investment Law. Accordingly, 100% foreign capital investment is completely encouraged and accepted. Some fields that are forecast to attract a large number of investors are: oil exploitation, agriculture, tourism... These are considered very potential fields of Cuba. This is a good opportunity for Vietnamese businesses. This adds new opportunities for cooperation, investment between Vietnamese and Cuban enterprises, accordingly, Cuba will become a production and export base to the US market and countries in the Latin American region.

The question now is what fields should Vietnamese enterprises invest in Cuba? This question was asked by the President of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce - Mr. Lic. Orlando Hernandez Gruillen responded in a recent DDDN interview. That is, Cuba is very interested in attracting FDI in the field of agriculture and food, because in recent years, Cuba has still had to spend more than 2 billion USD to import these products. Meanwhile, this is the strength of Vietnamese enterprises. Therefore, Cuba is calling on Vietnamese investors to invest in the agricultural industry with the purpose of not only serving Cuba's domestic needs but also exporting to other countries.

It seems that they have felt the heat of the Cuban market, and not to lag behind other countries, recently many Vietnamese business delegations have come to Cuba to look for investment opportunities. Even this May, VCCI also organized a delegation of Vietnamese enterprises to Cuba, expected time from May 22 - June 2, 2015 to find business opportunities.