The top US leader was impressed by dynamic young Vietnamese entrepreneurs who are believed to have a wealth of opportunities to do great things.
President Obama said he would support Vietnam in startup activities and English language teaching while expressing his confidence in the development of entrepreneurship in the country.
“What makes start-ups successful is good ideas and human capital. Investors and infrastructure are important but most is people. If look at Vietnam now, culture of entrepreneurship is starting but is our education system equipping children good enough? You both young, remember how it is to go to school,” he said.
Regarding the benefits the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will bring to Vietnamese entrepreneurs, he said despite some people being "suspicious of free trade", he is confident the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be passed.
Vietnam’s manufacturing and export-led economy is considered as the biggest TPP beneficiary as the deal will help push up economic reforms in Vietnam, enhance the country’s economic competitiveness and market expansion.
We are going to create standards for world trade that are fair. They will encourage the rule of law and intellectual property that have strong environmental provisions so that countries can’t take advantage of or destroy the environment, Obama said.
“The good news is the majority of the American people still believe in trade, and still believe it is good for our economy. The bad news is that U.S. politics are not always, how should I put it, reasonable. Although there have been a few ups and downs along the way to convincing US legislators to approve the TPP, Obama is confident that “ultimately we will get it passed. There are still some very supportive congressmen here today. Ultimately we will get the TPP passed.
“When China came into the WTO, it could take advantage of the growing global supply chain. Lots of manufacturing was shifted to China. Many American people saw it as jobs exported to China. Some of the same things happened to Mexico too,” he said.
He said the majority of American people hold the perception that free trade agreements (FTAs) are bad for American workers, adding data proves that the US may lose some manufacturing jobs, but the country will gain in other areas overall.
However, he said to continue to get the TPP passed, we have to make globalization works for us.
Obama also met with the three leading Vietnamese entrepreneurs, namely Le Hoang Uyen Vy, founder of Adayroi.com, an e-commerce website designed to become Amazon of Vietnam, Do Thi Thuy Hang, Vice president of Retail Group Seedcom, and Khoa Pham, Director of Legal and Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Vietnam at Dreamplex, a co-working space for startups in HCM City.
During the meeting, Obama talked about business ideas as well as difficulties they have to overcome to move forward in the future.
