President Biden’s Vietnam visit to witness deals worth billions of dollars

A spate of deals and agreements potentially worth billions of U.S. dollars are poised to be announced during President Joe Biden’s two-day visit to Hanoi starting Sunday, Vietnam’s ambassador to the U.S. Nguyen Quoc Dung has told the press.

Vietnamese and U.S. leaders will revise the two nations’ comprehensive partnership that has been in place for a decade and map out directions for bilateral ties, with a focus on science and technology, economy-trade-investment, people-to-people exchange, and settlement of war legacies, the ambassador added.

“This will open up a new chapter in Vietnam-U.S. relations, and also create more favorable conditions for Vietnam to gradually have a higher position in regional and global value chains,” he noted.

President Biden’s visit will also further promote bilateral cooperation in green economy, digital economy, and high technology. Accordingly, the two sides will detail priorities in the fields of high technology, artificial intelligence, telecommunications. In addition, they will initiate several initiatives in semiconductor and skilled workforce training.

Agencies and businesses of the two countries are also set to ink a number of memoranda of understanding and agreements that will help Vietnam further its development in green economy, digital economy, and high technology, Dung added.

Reuters has reported that top U.S. semiconductors and digital companies including Intel, GlobalFoundries, Google, Intel, Amkor, and Marvell are expected to attend a business meeting on Monday in Hanoi during Biden's visit. Plane manufacturer Boeing and energy firm AES may make announcements.

U.S. companies have committed to invest in 1,274 projects worth $11.73 billion as of June 20, making the world’s No.1 economy the 11th largest foreign investor in the country. If investments from third countries are taken into account, the U.S. is probably the third or fourth largest investor in Vietnam, according to Adam Sitkoff, executive director of AmCham Hanoi.