Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) welcomes Mike Spanos, CEO of the Asia, Middle East, and North Africa unit of the US-based PepsiCo, Inc. (Photo: VNA)

The PM spoke highly of the cooperation between PepsiCo Vietnam and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development by their founding a public-private partnership group on fruits and vegetables in 2010.
PM Phuc hailed the US firm for expanding its cultivation area of potato in Vietnam’s Central Highlands province of Lam Dong from 55 hectares to over 450ha, while also supporting farmers with cultivation skills that can help them increase their output three times the average level.
He expressed hope that PepsiCo Vietnam will continue to study processing in order to create high added-value products made from artichoke, a specialty in the Central Highlands city of Da Lat, and bring its products to the company’s distribution chains.
Spanos said Vietnam is one of the company’s top 20 priority markets across the globe, and eighth in the Asian-Middle Eastern-North African region.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) receives Sarath Ratanavadi, founder and CEO of Thailand’s Gulf Energy Development (Photo: VNA)

While receiving Sarath Ratanavadi, PM Phuc reaffirmed the Vietnamese Government has always created the best conditions for foreign businesses to invest in the country. This is one of the reasons why many Thai firms have chosen to enter the Vietnamese market, which currently operate 492 projects worth 10 billion USD, he noted.

The PM underlined Vietnam’s policy of discouraging investment in coal-fired thermal power generation, but welcoming investment in renewable and clean energy.
Vietnam needs more abundant energy to meet the country’s economic development, he said, adding that this is a good opportunity for the Thai company.
Sarath Ratanavadi said his business has started to invest in Vietnam through a solar power project with a capacity of 100MW.
The company plans to continue investing in the field of energy to increase electricity for Vietnam, as well as draw more investors, he said, adding that it is also able to provide water for the industrial sector.