Message From The Chair – June 2019

Dear AmCham Members,

June is the first month of summer in the United States–the day light is longer across most of the U.S., schools are out, and yet the days always seemed to go by quickly…and before you know it, we are celebrating the 4th of July Independence holiday! AmCham Vietnam has been hosting its own special U.S. Independence Day events for a quarter century—be sure to get your tickets to this year’s event happening June 29, 2019 in HCMC, District 2. You won’t want to miss a taste of America’s 4th of July traditions!

The past month has continued to be a vibrant time for AmCham, including many advocacy efforts lead by our committees and other business events, including an inspiring business outlook dinner with our U.S. Ambassador in early June. I am also proud of the CSR activities of AmCham and its members. I’m pleased to report an overview of some of these highlights from the past 30 days and look ahead to some upcoming events.

AmCham’s committees have been hard at work on very important advocacy issues related to proposed laws and newly enacted regulations. The efforts of the Human Resources (HR), Food and Beverages Sector (FBSC) and Direct Selling (AVDSC) Committees resulted in the release of four position papers on various topics in the past 30 days:

• AmCham FBSC submitted its Comments on Draft 3 of the circular guiding some articles of Decree 43/2007 on good label to General Department of Standards, Measures and Quality Control. The Committees raised 09 concerns of the current guidance of the Draft 3 of the circular, stated the difficulties that companies have to face and proposed solutions for each concern.
• AmCham FBSC also raised the concerns over Notice No. 1234/TB-ATTP dated 19 April 2019 and Draft Circular guiding good manufacturing practices (GMP) during production and trading of health/dietary supplements.
• AmCham AVDSC submitted its position paper to Phu Tho People’s Committee and DoIT to raise the concern on the procedure of multi-level sale activities registration in accordance with decree 40/2018/ND-CP.

Other committees have also been leading the way with advocacy efforts, such as the AmCham Power & Energy Committee who has released its Made in Vietnam Energy Plan 2.0 2020-2030 (MVEP 2.), which provides recommendations for use of Vietnam’s domestic energy for the short and long term. The AmCham Board thanks the strong committee leadership and efforts of many of our industry-expert members. Many of these issues will be raised by AmCham, as well as several of our working groups, at the mid-year Vietnam Business Forum, scheduled for June 26, 2019 in Hanoi.

AmCham also hosted several business and committee topics over the past 30 days, to include the impact of the U.S.-China trade dispute (co-hosted with member KPMG); an update on Criminal Law as it impacts foreigners (lead by LE & TRAN, Mr. Stephen Le); a robust introduction to Intelligence Augmentation (IA) by the Logistics and Supply Chain committee and representatives of Yedda; and an overview of the newly implemented Competition Law by LNT & Partners. AmCham’s Women in Leadership Committee also hosted a committee planning round-table in May and a Women’s Empowerment Social in June with programming by Dr. Astrid Matarrita-Chinchilla.

I am also very proud of ongoing CSR efforts lead by AmCham and its members. On June 7, AmCham in cooperation with Intel Products Vietnam, Coca-Cola Vietnam, Axcela Vietnam organized the 9th AmCham Women in Engineering Scholarship Award Ceremony. The scholarship purposes are to encourage and support female students to study in science and engineering fields and to pursue technical careers. During the period of 8 years, the program has successfully awarded 315 scholarships for female engineering students in HCMC and Da Nang.

Another on-going CSR effort is our World Blood Donor Days. With the theme “Safe Blood For All”, this year AmCham, BBGV and Hospital of Hematology and Blood Transfusion have organized blood drives at 9 different locations from June 10 to June 20, 2019. It is efforts of the business community, including of our partners and members, that gives AmCham great pride in helping supply safe blood to those in need, which contributes to a stronger community and health in Vietnam.

Finally, one of our most anticipated events this past month was our Business Outlook dinner on June 6th with U.S. Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink who shared his insight on the economic climate and political relations of Vietnam and the United States.

Thank you again to the U.S. Mission, InterContinental Saigon, our participating members and our sponsors for an incredible evening:

Gold Sponsors: Becamex Hospitality Company Limited (our new member for 2 months); and our long-term members: Coca-Cola Beverages (25 years), Suntory Pepsico (25 years), The Grand Ho Tram Strip (9 years), Vietnam Waste Solutions (10 years).

Silver Sponsors: Green Speed Company (4 years), ITL Corporation (3 years).

Bronze Sponsors: AETNA (5 years), America Indochina Management Ltd. (18 years), Baker & McKenzie (Vietnam) Ltd. (25 years), Diversatek (9 years), Streets International Inc. (2 years), Pfizer (15 years).

Upcoming Events

One of the most celebrated U.S. holidays is almost here! We look forward to celebrating with many of you on June 29th our U.S. Independence Day with our AmCham members, families and friends. This will be the 25th year of AmCham’s 4th of July celebration and family picnic. All-in-one tickets are on sale now. It is a fantastic celebration, with many favorite USA holiday foods and entertainment.

Upcoming next month two members of our Board of Governors will represent AmCham Vietnam at the annual Washington D.C. “Door Knock” where they will attend programming the Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce (APCAC) from July 14-18. Representatives from the different AMCHAMS of the Asia Pacific region will meet face to face with senior policy makers and members of Congress to discuss issues affecting U.S. business in the region. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Cindy Tran by July 5, 2019 at [email protected].

New Members and Thank You Premium Members

We are very excited to welcome our recently new and rejoined Corporate Members: ANZ Bank, Austin Labs (MyStorage.vn), Cimigo Sole Member LLC, Construction Joint Stock Company No. 1 (COFICO), Dilinh Legal, Platinum Global Company Limited, Phan Law Vietnam, Ranpak Pte Ltd, Vietsway.
Individual Member: Mr. Andy Tran

AmCham very much appreciates Coca-Cola, Suntory PepsiCo, Intel, and Truong Phat for their continuous being our Premium Members.

We know that June is busy for many of our members before summer holiday plans, but please complete the AmCham Survey that was emailed to members in early June. If you haven’t completed the survey, I ask that you take the few minutes to give us this feedback. The survey will close on June 21.

Thank you and “Happy 4th of July”!

With Best Regards,

Amanda Rasmussen
Chairwoman