PM Chinh asks hypermarket chain Lulu to bring UAE investors to Vietnam

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has called on LuLu Group International, with its extensive network of branches, to bring potential investors from both within and outside the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to invest in Vietnam.

Chinh made the request at a meeting with M.A. Yusuff Ali, chairman and managing director of the hypermarket chain operator, in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, during his official visit to the UAE.

Chinh thanked the group for introducing Vietnamese products to consumers in the Middle East and other countries through its large-scale and widespread hypermarket chain.

The Abu Dhabi-headquartered group owns the LuLu Hypermarket chain in 23 countries, and posts annual revenues of over $8 billion.

As Vietnam has been deepening international integration with 19 free trade agreements with over 60 economies and boasts increasingly developed logistics, the country is well positioned to boost trade with all parts of the world.

Therefore, Chinh asked Lulu Group to continue introducing more potential Vietnamese products to the UAE market as well as the Middle East and other markets in the group's retail network.

He also asked the group to facilitate Vietnamese businesses’ participation in the Halal supply chain, and partner with capable Vietnamese partners to open a hypermarket chain in Vietnam, a market with a 100-million population and high purchasing power.

For his part, Yusuff Ali said that Lulu Group currently has a representative office in Ho Chi Minh City to purchase Vietnamese products. He expressed his hope to expand its operations in Vietnam and receive the Vietnamese government’s endorsement.

The corporate leader promised to expand the list of goods and increase imports from Vietnam.

The group will closely coordinate with Vietnamese agencies to organize Vietnamese goods fairs in the UAE and Gulf countries to promote consumer access to Vietnamese products.

As of September, the UAE had 42 investment projects worth a combined $74 million in Vietnam, ranking 52nd among foreign investors in the country, according to data from the Vietnamese government.

PM Pham Minh Chinh, his spouse, and a high-ranking delegation of Vietnam departed Hanoi on Sunday morning to pay official visits to the UAE and Qatar, attend the eighth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII), and make a working trip to Saudi Arabia.

These are the first official visits to the UAE and Qatar by a Vietnamese PM over the past 15 years and the first-ever visit to Saudi Arabia since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1999.

This also marks the first time the PM has been invited as the chief guest and the only high-ranking leader in Asia to address the FII.