VietNamNet Bridge – Before worries of the foreign business community after some foreign firms in southern provinces were attacked by extremists in the name of the “anti-China demonstrations”, HCM City governor Le Hoang Quan this morning committed to do his best to protect the interests of foreign investors.
Agitators arrested for provoking workers in protests against China
HCM City Chairman Le Hoang Quan met with foreign investors on Thursday morning.
At the meeting between the leaders of HCM City with foreign companies investing in the city on Thursday morning, representatives of the Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Malaysian, Filipino and German Business Associations expressed their worry about the unrest that caused damages to some foreign factories in the past few days in some southern provinces.
Many businesses that have their factories in Binh Duong Province set their headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City. Therefore, they told all of their concerns with HCM City’s officials and asked for the city’s assistance.
According to the representative of the South Korean Business Association, the destruction of extremists has significantly affected the foreign business community. The representative of the Singaporean Business Association also expressed the concern at the marches against China which then turned into chaos in the industrial zones in Binh Duong province and caused big losses for them.
“I feel that if the local security forces and local governments responded more quickly, the situation would have been controlled better. Singaporean enterprises were very worried and we hope that this incident will never happen again,” the representative said.
Mr. Michael Chiu, Chairman of the Hong Kong Business Association, said according to initial statistics, at least 8 businesses were affected by the recent demonstrations. Many Hong Kong businessmen were afraid of the marches and they returned home while some hide themselves at hotels.
“I have lived in Vietnam for 20 years and this is the first time that I feel such fear. I would like to thank the chairman for holding this meeting, and I would like to ask if the same thing happens, how can we contact the city government? I still believe that Vietnam has a good investment environment but we want the city to take measures to prevent such incidents,” said Mr. Michael Chiu.
Mr. Janathan Moreno, CEO of Sandhill Scientific Vietnam, a US-invested company, said that he was really shocked because everything went so fast. During the last two days many Chinese and Taiwanese companies were burned and destroyed. “During the 17 hour of instability, our company could only hang banners expressing solidarity and saying that we are not a Chinese company.”
Before the anxiety of foreign business associations, HCM City Chairman Le Hoang Quan affirmed that the city would do the best to protest the interests of businesses in the city. He also said that the chaos only occurred in Binh Duong and Dong Nai. In HCM City, only a handful of companies in the Binh Chieu Industrial Zone were mildly affected.
“We regret for the incident in recent days which were caused by some extremist who committed violations of the law, affecting Vietnam’s image in the eyes of foreign investors. This was just spontaneous acts of some bad people. In nature, Vietnamese people are very respectful and friendly to foreigners,” Quan said.
Quan said the Vietnamese government had asked local authorities to ensure the safety for foreigners. In the city, the home to 26 industrial parks and export processing zones, the local government pledged to do the best to protect investors.
Regarding the opinion the local government did not respond quickly, Quan explained that because the number of participants in the marches was very crowded, including agitators and criminals who incited workers to take extreme acts against foreign companies, the security forces needed time to approach and wisely handle the ringleaders.
He said that foreign investors can contact the city industrial and export processing zone management authority and the Department of Foreign Affairs through the consulates of their countries in HCM City.
Regarding support for the firms that were damaged in the incident, Quan said that after this meeting HCM City would convey the opinions of foreign investors to the central government.
Compiled by S. Tung
HCMC promises to do its best to protect foreign firms Related image(s)
0 comments:
Post a Comment