CrossChat Live! 2014: Vietnam Economy 2015 – Is The Tide Rising?

27 November 2014 – On the last week of November 2014, SBG welcomed more than 60 participants at Duxton Hotel Saigon in the CrossChat Live! “Vietnam Economy 2015 – Is the Tide Rising?”.

27 November 2014 – On the last week of November 2014, SBG welcomed more than 60 participants at Duxton Hotel Saigon in the CrossChat Live! “Vietnam Economy 2015 – Is the Tide Rising?”.

Seven panelists (listed below) were invited to provide an insight on how the economic changes in Vietnam have impacted and will impact both their business and operations in 2014 and 2015. They represented key industries, including Entepreneur, Legal, Real Estate, Banking and HR.

OUR MODERATOR & PANELISTS (from left to right) Mr. Lim Hua Tiong– General Manager, Southern Vietnam, CapitaLand Vietnam Mr. Phua Koon Kee – CEO, Aquarius Vietnam Mr. Seck Yee Chung – Partner, Baker & McKenzie/ Vice President, Singapore Business Group Mr. Norman Lim–  President, Singapore Business Group Mr. Marc Townsend – Managing Director, CBRE Vietnam/ President, American Chamber of Commerce Mr. Raymond Lim – Country Head, Citi Commercial Bank Vietnam, Citibank N.A. Mr. Su Ngoc Khuong– Associate Director, Investment, Savills Vietnam Ms. Tu Truong – Director, Focus Consulting

Despite the three years of down turn in Vietnam real estate market, the representatives from real estate industry believe that Vietnam market started showing signs of recovery and would still remain a key market for South East Asian real estate investors in 2015 and upcoming years. The new law in owning land right for foreigners would also have a positive impact in attracting foreign investors to Vietnam.

In view of HR challenges, an audience commented that Vietnam is losing talents to overseas countries because of low wage while the young Vietnamese employees who work in Vietnam may not possess the skills that employers are looking for. This is the human resource difficulty that most foreign companies are encountering.

One SBG member in the field of Oil & Gas also forecasted that the spiral decline of cost for oil would cause a great loss for Oil & Gas companies in the region, which would lead to a decrease in production to save loss. This, therefore, would also drastically affect the suppliers in this industry.

Overall, the panelists and audience were upbeat about the economy going into 2015. The CrossChat Live! is an annual year-end live forum to discuss about Vietnam’s economic growth. This year, this forum was co-hosted by Australian Chamber of Commber, British Business Group Vietnam and Malaysia Business Chamber.

Click HERE for the event photos!