International Trade committee  I do not have statistics on the proportion that's private sector. The state-owned enterprises remain fairly significant, particularly in major industries. One example is the power grid. Vietnam has privatized in the area of power generation, so they are welcoming private investm

International Trade committee  Madam Chair, the protection of the domestic manufacturing sector is a bit beyond my brief. Certainly, manufacturing in countries like Vietnam is an important part of their sector. You can see that by our trade stats. Manufactured products, textiles and furniture occupy the majo

International Trade committee  Madam Chair, as I mentioned before, the market is pretty stable, perhaps in part because of the stability of the government. Where the challenges come is in the lack of transparency in the regulatory environment. Laws, as they are passed, tend to be quite vague, including those

International Trade committee  Yes, absolutely. Vietnam, as I mentioned, is a single-party state and has been relatively stable in its political situation. We have seen, I think, over the last couple of years—some of it perhaps opportunistically because of the pandemic—a closure in digital spaces and thus an

International Trade committee  Madam Chair, I can jump in on that one, if you like. Vietnam is unique for the region in having two points of service for trade commissioners given the size of the market and variance. The embassy in Hanoi has five trade commissioners. The commercial capital of the country, of c

International Trade committee  Madam Chair, thanks for the question. Indeed, it's early days, so formulating priorities is part of what I'm doing. I can tell you that given my experience and my short time here already, there are probably four main areas of work I see pursuing as ambassador to Vietnam. The fi

International Trade committee  I can jump in on that, Madam Chair.

International Trade committee  The trade agreements, from my perspective, work in a couple of ways. One is the typical reduction of tariffs, which is what most people conceive of when they look at a trade agreement. However, there's a component to the trade agreements that also generates interest in the negoti

International Trade committee  Indeed, Madam Chair, with Vietnam, our education exchange started through student improvement. The high demand for high-quality education in Canada has driven a large number of Vietnamese students to Canada. In fact, prepandemic, Vietnamese students were the third-largest source

International Trade committee  Indeed, Vietnam has accelerated not only its production of photovoltaics but also its implementation of clean energies. It's a country that's still very much reliant on coal. That's one area where Canada has begun to do really good work with Vietnam, helping to phase out coal. W

International Trade committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I reported for duty as Canada's Ambassador to Vietnam on May 3 and presented my credentials on May 26. I come to this position after more than four years as executive director for Greater China, an experience that offers an important perspective on Vietna