The U.S. Vietnam Chamber of Commerce held its fall mixer at Minh’s Vietnamese Restaurant in Arlington, Virginia on Friday, October 17, 2008.  The event which was well attended by member of the Embassy of Vietnam in the U.S., small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Washington, DC area, members of the World Bank, U.S. government and other organizations was a good venue to discuss recent developments in Vietnam and the U.S. 


Chairman of the UVCC, Chris Runckel who was introduced by Executive Director of UVCC Trung Trinh spoke about his recent talk at Rider University in the Princeton, New Jersey area the night before and Trung Trinh discussed his visit to the recent seminar on Vietnam at Princeton.  Runckel also noted that the growing financial crisis posed increased risks for Vietnam’s economy particularly its smaller banks and export industries in general.



Runckel also reported to the group about recent seminars on investing and doing business in Vietnam held in Hong Kong and soon to be held in Bangkok.  The group welcomed UVCC support for Vietnam in promoting Vietnam to a larger regional audience in Asia and expressed the view that Thai and Hong Kong investors will find Vietnam a welcoming environment in close proximity to their growing economies. 

Trung Trinh noted about planned upcoming visit to Vietnam and to talks with the Embassy of Vietnam Trade Office on supporting upcoming meetings on infrastructure investment and other subjects.  Commercial Counselor Ngo Van Thoan and Commercial Attaché Vinh Do who also attended the get together supported these efforts as did many of the business members attending the event.