Vietnam becomes more attractive to Chinese investors

According to Gao Ziu Zhi, chairman of the Tianjin Furniture Association, Chinese furniture manufacturers are looking to relocate manufacturing to Vietnam to deal with their rising domestic labour costs at home.
Meanwhile, Vietnam offers lower labour costs, coupled with tariff reductions brought by a multitude of free trade agreements, making the country an ideal destination for Chinese exporters.

Many Chinese firms want to invest in wood processing and furniture production in Vietnam.

She noted that Tianjin city is home to 7,000 furniture companies, 3,000 of which are furniture manufacturers. Several company members under the Tianjin Furniture Association are planning to explore Vietnam in the coming time. Most of these are large-scale companies with major export markets.
Geng Wei, Chairman of Tianjin Foreign Economic and Trade Promotion Association, said that Chinese enterprises are making efforts to improve their capacity for international cooperation in order to expand their business scale and trade.
In addition, many businesses want to invest in wood processing, furniture production and bicycle industries in Vietnam, as well as to enhance their cooperation with Vietnamese enterprises to transport and import tropical agricultural products and fruits through official channels.
Vo Tan Thanh, Director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)’s Ho Chi Minh City branch, said that Vietnam – China cooperation has developed forcefully, particularly in the fields of trade, investment and tourism.
China now has more than 1,700 investment projects in Vietnam, with a total capital of approximately US$12 billion, mostly in the fields of processing, real estate investment and restaurant services.
Notably, since 2016, China has invested in numerous large-scale projects in Vietnam and is expected to soon become one of the countries five largest investors.
China is also the largest trade partner of Vietnam, while Vietnam is China’s ninth largest trade partner in the world and the largest in ASEAN.
Vietnam-China bilateral trade turnover reached US$72 billion in 2016 and US$82 billion in the first ten months of 2017. Vietnam mainly exports mobile phones, components, electronic devices, rubber, agricultural products and seafood to China, while importing most of the raw materials for the textile and garment and leather footwear industries, as well as steel and construction materials.
In terms of tourism, Vietnam welcomed 2.7 million Chinese visitors (accounting for 27 percent of total foreign tourists) in 2016. In the first eleven months of this year, the number of Chinese visitors to Vietnam was 3.6 million, an annual increase of 35 percent.