Office set to boost U.S. business in Hanoi
Office set to boost U.S. business in Hanoi
HANOI (Reuter): The new U.S. diplomatic mission in Hanoi, which starts work later this week, will help U.S. companies do business in Vietnam, American residents said.
More than 100 Americans live in the Vietnamese capital and at least a third of them turned out on Saturday to celebrate the opening of the U.S. liaison office, which marked the start of formal relations between Hanoi and Washington for the first time since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.
Though the two governments do not yet have full diplomatic relations and embassies, residents interviewed by Reuters saw the liaison office as the next best thing.
"There was 20 years of nothing," said businessman James Rockwell. "Now we've got relations with Vietnam. Psychologically, it has massive significance."
Rockwell, whose Vatico company represents several U.S. corporations, said the liaison office would ease passport and visa matters and encourage U.S. companies to come to Vietnam.
"This takes away the stigma forever," he said.
"This is a very exciting day," lawyer Tanya Pullin said. "Up to this point, Americans traveling or living in Vietnam did not have consular services available. If we lost our passports we were in big trouble. Now we can relax."
Business executives were upbeat, and some expected U.S. government commercial officers to be assigned to Hanoi.
"It's a great day for the American community in Hanoi," said Alfonso DeMatteis, who runs a construction firm and heads the newly formed American Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber has 58 member companies in Hanoi and a similar number in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's business hub.
"You're going to have a full-sized embassy over here from all the indications we hear," DeMatteis said. "This is what we need. It tells people it's another shoulder to cry on in a hostile (business) environment."
He said the liaison office opening would facilitate the start of operations in Vietnam by the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, another government agency "and that would be a big help for us".
Vietnam and the United States opened liaison offices almost a year to the day after President Bill Clinton lifted a U.S. economic embargo against Hanoi.
The U.S. office, a nine-story, glass-fronted office block, shut its doors after the opening party. James Hall, the head of the office, said it would start work next Friday after Vietnam's Tet lunar new year holidays.
Small and medium-sized U.S. businesses "who don't have any route to come into Vietnam" would benefit from its presence, said Kathy Charlton, managing director of investment and consultancy firm Ashta International.
"If there is some sort of liaison here to answer questions and help people find partners in Vietnam for certain areas of business, I think that will be a help," she said.
Chuck Searcy of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation said opening the liaison office would help the U.S. drive to account for servicemen still listed as missing in action from the wars in Indochina.