What interest do US businesses have in Vietnam? Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung talks with DTiNews about the financial cooperation opportunities for Vietnamese and US firms following US President Obama's visit. Dung said recently, the Ministry of Finance held a conference about investment promotion in the US and many major corporations such as JPMorgan Chase, CitiGroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Metlife attended. The assessment is that Vietnam is an attractive investment destination and many firms showed interests. They also wanted to know more about the privatisation process of state-owned firms in Vietnam as it is estimated that stakes valued over USD3.7bn will be offered in the coming time.   Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung However many US firms are still worried about the investment protection, how their assets are going to be protected in Vietnam. What do you think? As Vietnam has agreed to the TPP, Vietnam will have to follow various commitments in finance and customs sectors. It is hoped that the commitments will help to boost integration process and transparency of the local economy as well as improve the business environment to attract investors. Mechanisms for investment protection have just been set up to ensure a fair playing field for everyone. Both local and foreign firms expressed concerns that the departments of taxation and customs had come up with ways to apply more taxes on them, maybe due to the pressure on state budget. The American Chamber of Commerce has tabled this issue at various conferences. What is your opinion? It's true that Vietnam is facing various obstacles compared to developed economies. The state budget suffers because we have to cut lots of taxes following commitments of many international trade agreements. In addition, local firms will face fierce competition. We need careful management measures in this case. But I think that our government knows that. For the Finance Ministry, I ordered our agencies to closely watch how the market is affected by the trade agreements. By Ha Nguyen, dtinews.vn