Makara Capital Partners wants to mobilize $5-7 bln for investments in Vietnam: exec

Singapore's Makara Capital Partners is eyeing investment opportunities in Vietnam, including those in the biological and pharmaceutical industries and the International Financial Center project.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received Ali Ijaz Ahmad, chairman and CEO of Makara Capital in Hanoi on Wednesday.

Makara Capital is a global financial services company that specializes in fund management as well as structuring and financing. It manages an innovation investment fund worth about $700 million, operating in cooperation with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore.

Ali Ijaz Ahmad said that the company has thoroughly studied the Vietnamese market and believes in the country’s strategic development direction, vision, and growth aspirations.

Makara Capital is actively promoting investment in a biological-pharmaceutical industrial park project in Thai Binh province which covers nearly 300 hectares.

It is also actively working with relevant agencies and localities in Vietnam to cooperate in investment and provide capital for projects in the fields of energy and infrastructure.

The company wishes to participate in restructuring Vietnamese banks and developing the International Financial Center in Vietnam.

Makara Capital can mobilize about $5-7 billion for such projects, the Vietnamese government's news portal quoted Ali Ijaz Ahmad as saying.

Vietnam will build one international financial center located in both Ho Chi Minh City and Danang, according to a parliament resolution passed on June 27. The resolution will come into force on September 1.

In response, Prime Minister Chinh said he appreciates Makara Capital’s successful business activities and welcomes the group’s interest in exploring new cooperation opportunities.

He noted that the fields that Makara Capital is interested in, including the biological and pharmaceutical industries and the International Financial Center, are Vietnam’s priorities for sustainable, green and rapid development.

Chinh said Vietnam is pursuing three strategic breakthroughs: institutional reform, infrastructure development, and human resource training.

The country is also undergoing a "revolution" to streamline the administrative system, organizing a two-tier local administration model (comprising provincial and communal levels as the district level in between was removed) .

Vietnam is targeting a GDP growth of at least 8% this year and double-digit expansion in subsequent years, striving to become a high-income developed nation by 2045, he said.

Chinh reiterated the Government’s commitment to accompanying and facilitating effective and successful investments by Makara Capital.

The Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam guarantees the legitimate rights and interests of investors based on three principles: codifying regulations into law, aligning with market mechanisms, and harmonizing regulations with international standards.