On September 27th, 2013, The Asia Society Southern California and The Marshall School of Business’ International Business Education and Research (IBEAR) MBA Program co-hosted an event that examined investment and business potential in Vietnam entitled “Opportunities With Vietnam.” The event took place at the USC University Club from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Breakfast was served and business cards were exchanged before the delegation from Vietnam, primarily from Becamex IDC, took to the podium. The structure of the event was split into two sections: in the first, speakers from Becamex IDC engaged the audience with PowerPoint presentations detailing economic trajectory for investment potential in Vietnam, and then, in the second, the floor was opened up to questions and comments from the audience.

Speakers from Becamex IDC encouraged the audience to not view Vietnam as a single market, but to take the scope of the entire ASEAN market into consideration. Vietnam is located just four hours from all of Asia’s key markets and as Asia continues to rise, it’s strategic geopolitical location will prove essential to its future economic success. Outside of Vietnam’s dynamic positioning within the ASEAN market, the delegation also highlighted the pro-business environment, stable government, and the dynamic low cost workforce as reasons to invest in Vietnam.

Becamex IDC, which is 100% government owned is a proponent of the concept of the fully integrated and self-contained cities as a model for Vietnam’s potential infrastructure to ensure long-term sustainable development. Everything is included in these hub-like cities: factory workplace, housing, education, government, healthcare, language centers, recreation, etc. All services are in one, self-contained, fully integrated entity. According to Becamex IDC, this model will allow Vietnam to become increasingly competitive in the global market and exponentially more integral to the skeleton of the ASEAN market.