VietNamNet Bridge – Leaders of a dozen of major banks and corporations from Sweden are now in Hanoi looking for opportunities to invest in the fields of finance, transport, machinery, defense and security.

One that can be named is Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE), a member of the  Volvo  Group, a world famous manufacturer of trucks, buses, construction equipment and drive systems for marine and industrial applications. Volvo CE specialises in manufacturing equipment for construction and related industries.

Many major Nordic banks and financial corporations also join the quest such as Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB, Svenska Handelsbanken, Nordea and SE.K.

Others include Scania Southeast Asia, one of world’s leading manufacturers of trucks and buses for heavy transport applications and industrial and marine engines; Stena International Freight, a head in shipping industry and representatives of defense and security corporations such as Saab Asia Pacifik Co., Ltd. and BAE Systems Hägglunds.

Most of them have been involved in doing business in South East Asia for a long time through their firms based in Singapore. Now they are eyeing emerging markets in the region.

Sweden will concentrate on promoting business expansion as well as create favourable conditions for the country’s enterprises introducing green and advanced technologies to Vietnam.

Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam Camilla Mellander made the remark at a November 19 press conference in Hanoi on the occasion of a Swedish business delegation visiting Vietnam from November 17-19.

The delegation, led by Swedish Ambassador to Singapore Hakan Jevrell, includes representatives from 11 enterprises specialising in the fields of mining, oil and gas, energy, recycling industry, construction, and banking and finance.

Mellander said her country has worked out long-term development cooperation programmes in Vietnam for the last 45 years, and declared the Swedish embassy is striving to better support Sweden’s firms wanting to do and expand business in the country.

Swedish enterprises are attractive to business opportunities in Vietnam while domestic partners want to team up with their counterparts from the European country, said Ambassador Jevrell.

He further said the visit helped the Swedish representatives reap more useful information on Vietnam’s business climate and its development outlook in the coming time.

They noted the potential and promise of expanding business cooperation between the two countries, said James Armstrong, a representative from SCANIA Group.

The European nation has 250 businesses operating in the areas of education and services in Singapore, noted Armstrong, adding all Swedish firms are looking for cooperation opportunities in Vietnam.

Two-way trade between Vietnam and Sweden reached around 1 billion USD last year and 573 million USD in the first half of this year, a year-on-year surge of 34.5 percent.

The EU country has provided non-refundable assistance totalling more than 3.4 billion USD to Vietnam over the past years.

Chung Hoang