After leaving Hanoi, the US President Barack Obama arrived in Ho Chi Minh City. After visiting the Ngoc Hoang (Jade) Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, the US President Barack Obama met with young Vietnamese entrepreneurs and delivered his remarks on entrepreneurship and opportunity for the Vietnamese people.
Obama met with start-up entrepreneurs
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“What makes start-ups successful is good ideas and human capital. Investors and infrastructure are important but most is people. If look at Vietnam now, culture of entrepreneurship is starting but is our education system equipping children good enough? You both young, remember how it is to go to school,” he said.
Regarding the benefits the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will bring to Vietnamese entrepreneurs, he said despite some people being "suspicious of free trade", he is confident the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be passed. Vietnam’s manufacturing and export-led economy is considered as the biggest TPP beneficiary as the deal will help push up economic reforms in Vietnam, enhance the country’s economic competitiveness and market expansion.
We are going to create standards for world trade that are fair. They will encourage the rule of law and intellectual property that have strong environmental provisions so that countries can’t take advantage of or destroy the environment, Obama said.
“The good news is the majority of the American people still believe in trade, and still believe it is good for our economy. The bad news is that U.S. politics are not always, how should I put it, reasonable. Although there have been a few ups and downs along the way to convincing US legislators to approve the TPP, Obama is confident that “ultimately we will get it passed. There are still some very supportive congressmen here today. Ultimately we will get the TPP passed.
“When China came into the WTO, it could take advantage of the growing global supply chain. Lots of manufacturing was shifted to China. Many American people saw it as jobs exported to China. Some of the same things happened to Mexico too,” he said.
He said the majority of American people hold the perception that free trade agreements (FTAs) are bad for American workers, adding data proves that the US may lose some manufacturing jobs, but the country will gain in other areas overall.
“My message the other day is that I believe in you, America believes in you, and we will keep investing in your success. Ultimately, it’s the inventors and dreamers people like those that I’ve just met, those who we will hear from soon and all of you in the audience, who are going to shape Vietnam’s future in the decades to come,” he said.
“I think that if you had any doubt about the outstanding future of Vietnamese entrepreneurs, then all those doubts have been pushed away because of the outstanding presentations by these three individuals. Give them a big round of applause,” Obama said when concluding his talk with young entrepreneurs.
During the meeting, Obama talked about business ideas as well as difficulties they have to overcome to move forward in the future. “Next month at our global entrepreneurs’ summit, something that I have been hosting now for several years, I will welcome eight Vietnamese entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley so they can learn from some of the best entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the world,” Obama told the audience at Dreamplex.
Three young entrepreneurs, Hang Do, Vice President of Seedcom, Le Hoang Uyen Vy, Managing Director of Adayroi, and Khoa Pham, Director of legal & corporate affairs for Microsoft, took part in a panel discussion with the US President after his speech at Dreamplex.
Obama spoke about the interconnectness of today’s world and the global marketplace, and the need for every business to think globally. With good products and business strategies, companies can now reach billions of people, he noted.
He praised the spirit of entrepreneurship in Vietnam, saying that it had inspired him to return and continue to work with Microsoft in the place of his birth. Obama told the entrepreneurs that the 12-country TPP trade agreement represents a huge portion of the world’s marketplace creating “standards for trade and commerce that are fair, that create a playing field that has high standards, including intellectual property protection,” he noted.
Obama said at the end of the talk with the young businesspeople: “My message the other day is that I believe in you, America believes in you, and we will keep investing in your success. Ultimately, it’s the inventors and dreamers people like those that I’ve just met, those who we will hear from soon and all of you in the audience, who are going to shape Vietnam’s future in the decades to come. I think that if you had any doubt about the outstanding future of Vietnamese entrepreneurs, then all those doubts have been pushed away because of the outstanding presentations by these three individuals. Give them a big round of applause.”
