Maine encourages trade with Vietnam

BANGOR — Maine’s economic outreach efforts in Vietnam soon may pay dividends, say leaders of a newly incorporated trade group composed of members from both cultures.

As a result of last month’s visit by a Vietnamese trade delegation, the Maine-based Indochina Development Foundation will help match Maine companies with firms in the Vietnamese province of Nghe An.

The province has identified development needs amounting to more than $300 million, many of which could be met by Maine firms.

To that end, the IDF is gearing up to formalize a partnership with the Center for Consultation on Investment Supporting Agriculture & Rural Development.

CECARDE is directed by a senior adviser to the Vietnamese prime minister.

The IDF, which has members from both the United States and Vietnam, is in discussion with Maine firms about specific service and product offerings, according to IDF Program Officer Tony Brinkley.

Over the next few weeks, Brinkley said, the IDF will review options with firms interested in working with Vietnam.

Maine firms — and the products and services they offer — will be introduced in Vietnam during a trade mission to that developing nation. The trip is scheduled tentatively for August.

Working with CECARDE, the IDF hopes to foster links between businesses from Maine and Vietnam.

“We are reviewing possible projects in heavy construction, management training, composites, fisheries development, mapping, forest management, water purification, portable power systems and several other opportunities,” said Peter Thibeault, the foundation’s executive director.

Brinkley added Maine firms also can play a significant role in the development of the Vietnamese banking system, and in providing legal services as Vietnam improves its bilateral relations with the United States.

“The potential is enormous. We are now pursuing options in some detail that we discussed during the visit,” Thibeault said.

“CECARDE will provide high-level representation in Vietnam and offer critical links to the government and private industry there. We are on a very fast track with this,” he added.

The proposed partnership with CECARDE comes less than a month after a delegation of high-level Vietnamese businessmen and government officials visited Maine at Gov. Angus King’s invitation.

The weeklong June visit was organized by IDF in cooperation with the Maine International Trade Center and the Forum Francophone des Affaires, a French-language-based global trade group which attended the FFA’s biennial world summit in Vietnam last fall.

Though the FFA connection helped open the door to Vietnam, the IDF was formed more recently to foster trade between Maine and Nghe An province, as well as between the United States and Vietnam.

Instrumental in making the initial connection on Maine’s behalf was University of Maine history professor Ngo Vihn Long, a native of Vietnam who has maintained contacts in the country.

While in the Bangor region, the Vietnamese officials visited Bangor Savings Bank, Eastern Maine Development Corp., the University of Maine, the James Sewall Co. and Cianbro. Earlier that week, they met with former Sen. George Mitchell and Severin Beliveau of Preti, Flaherty & Pachios in Portland. Later in the week, they went to Lewiston and Augusta, where they had a working lunch with Gov. King.

Despite the differences between Maine and Nghe An province, there is at least one obvious similarity. Natural resources figure heavily into the economies of both regions.

All but a few of the components of the province’s investment and development portfolio revolve around raw materials that can be grown, raised or mined.

These include rubber, coffee, cinnamon, tea, oranges, silk, chip board, paper, seafood, animal husbandry and meat processing, nuts, cement, leather goods, mineral water, sugar and marble, according to the document.

The province also wants to develop electronics and tourism industries, and hopes to establish an industrial zone, a trade center, and an economic and cultural center.

It appears that Bangor will play a major role in the state’s effort to work with Vietnam. The IDF, now based in Hallowell, is moving its offices to Bangor this fall.

“IDF is a child of the Bangor business community,” Thibeault said.

“Initial support has come from the Eastern Maine Development Corporation, Bangor Savings Bank, Bangor International Airport and the University of Maine, as well as the Bangor office of the Maine International Trade Center,” he said.

“We think Bangor is the right place to be and look forward to being part of the international activities of the city and the region in the near future,” Thibeault said.