Energy talks headline high-profile US investor visit

The announcement of the proposed joint venture followed discussions between PetroVietnam officials and Atwood senior vice president Glen Kelly during a visit by 14 US businesses last week.
At their meeting, Kelly proposed that Atwood put up 80 per cent of the project capital.
Kelly also met with officials of a drilling company in Ho Chi Minh City who made recommendations regarding the proposal. He is expected to finalise the proposal in writing for submission to PetroVietnam.
The delegation was in Vietnam to look at investment opportunities and included executives from General Electric (GE), ACE Insurance, Synergics, EGT Enterprises, Le Tourneau, United Parcel Service, Oracle and the M3 Investment company.
ACE Insurance talked with the Ministry of Finance about the company’s upcoming life insurance licence and other business objectives, while EGT Enterprises expressed interest in downstream oil activities in Vietnam.
Stuart Dean, Asia president of GE, and Son Nguyen, country manager of GE Power Systems, talked with ministries about large power projects they planned to bid for this year and next.
These include the 720MW Ca Mau combined cycle power plant, which remains the company’s highest priority. GE is currently mobilising capital to fund equipment for the 210MW A Vuong hydro project.
The company also expressed interest in the 110MW Se San 3A hydro plant and the 50MW Srok Phu Mieng project, the 30MW Bac Binh hydro plant, the $3 billion Son La hydro project and a possible joint venture with GE Medical Equipment.
Hill & Knowlton senior advisor Jeffrey Trammell said Synergics CEO Wayne Rogers had talked with the Ministry of Industry about building hydro-electric plants.
“We had a very productive meeting with the ministry,” Trammell said.
He said Synergics had experience in designing and building such plants in India and Pakistan and was now looking for opportunities in Vietnam.
Hill & Knowlton wanted to see members of the delegation succeed in major projects in Vietnam so that other investors would be ready to invest in the country, said Andrew Sarvis, a senior advisor with Hill & Knowlton.
Sarvis said Oracle had talked with local authorities about a substantial information technology project with an estimated investment of more than several hundred million dollars.
“If Oracle is successful, it will be a tremendous incentive for other US companies to come,” he said. Goldman Sachs Banking was another potential investor, who had indicated an interest in working with Vietnam for underwriting a bond issue in the region of $250 million.
“However, they were not here on this trip because they wanted to wait for Vietnam to conclude negotiations on a pending bond issue with Credit Swisse First Boston,” Sarvis said.
If this was concluded immediately, Goldman Sachs would be willing to come to Vietnam to discuss a second bond sale, he said.
Hill & Knowlton advisors said challenges remained for Vietnam to attract more US investment. A number of potential investors wanted to see specific steps taken by Vietnam before they come either for discussions or to invest.
“Many American companies see Vietnam as having great promise but they also understand that there are still issues to be worked out,” Trammell said.
One of the most important issues for US companies in Vietnam was the protection and enforcement of intellectual property in software, information, technology and pharmaceutical areas, the advisors said.
“We have worked very closely with Oracle and Microsoft and they said they would invest more in Vietnam, but on that condition,” Sarvis said.