NL Public-Private Roundtable Dialogue

Thank you to the teams of the Kingdom of The Netherlands and Vietnam, and to Elsbeth Akkerman, Daniël Stork, and Christoph Prommersberger for offering the Dutch Business Association Vietnam the opportunity to facilitate a business roundtable on the occasion of the visit of Hanneke Schuiling.

The goal of the roundtable was for the private sector to inform the high-level delegation of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Netherlands about the activities and ambitions of the Dutch businesses in Vietnam, as well as take note of their experiences and concerns.

The roundtable focused on two main topics:

Experience of and perceived ease of doing business in Vietnam

What is your perception of (the development of) the ease of doing business in Vietnam?

For this topic, Gabor Fluit from De Heus and Frank Landheer from Cofano Asia were asked to take the lead with a short story on their experience of doing business in Vietnam.

• What is your opinion on (the ease of) doing business in Vietnam?
• What are your expectations of the Dutch diplomatic mission in Vietnam / where do you need help?  
• Are the EVFTA and its implementation helping your business? Is the implementation for your sector going smoothly?

The second topic was Sustainability.

At COP-26, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh promised that Vietnam will achieve net-zero greenhouse gases emissions by 2050. All large Dutch corporates are committing to ambitious sustainability agendas.

Frank van Ooijen, CEO at CleanDye Vietnam, and Jos van Gulick, General Director at NedSpice shared more about the sustainability efforts of their businesses. They discussed more the following questions:

• What are some strategies or activities that your company deploys to become more sustainable?
• What is your general opinion on the “road to sustainability” that Vietnam is on?
• (If applicable) In your opinion, does your business get sufficient access to the financing instruments that the Dutch government provides?

Ms. Hanneke Schuiling thanked all the participants of the roundtable for their reflections and valuable insights. It will help the policymakers in The Netherlands to develop better policies and increase the impact The Netherlands has in Vietnam.

More pictures can be found on our website.