Official: Chinese investment in Vietnam rising on lower costs

Chinese companies are eyeing further expansion in Vietnam due to the country’s lower labor costs and greater access to Southeast Asia, state media reported, citing Vietnamese trade officials. According to Bui Quoc Trung, a senior foreign investment official under Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment, by the end of July, Chinese companies had invested in 743 projects in the country worth a total US$3.1 billion. Trung said that compared with other regional hubs like Bangkok or Shanghai, costs in Vietnamese cities such as Hanoi are lower due to factors including minimum wage standards. Trade between Vietnam and China reached US$12.8 billion in the first half of this year, up almost 50% from the same period in 2009, after the introduction in January of a free trade agreement between Beijing and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.