STATE BANK OF VIETNAM BANKING ACADEMY Foreign Language Faculty GRADUATION THESIS THE IMPACTS OF THE 2008 FINANCIAL CRISIS ON THE FDI FLOWS TO VIETNAM Student : Nguyen Thi Mai Anh Lecturers : Can Thuy Lien M. Nguyen Hong Thang Ph. 1st, June 2012 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Mrs Can Thuy Lien and M. Mr Nguyen Hong Thang, Ph.D, for the valuable guidance and advice.
Without their supervision, I can hardly complete the thesis on “The impacts of 2008 financial crisis on the FDI flows to Vietnam”. Secondly, I also would like to show my appreciation to my lecturers at Banking Institute, especially the lecturers of Foreign Language Department, who provided me with background knowledge during the last four years. At the same time, I am very grateful to my internship supervisors from Military Bank, who assisted me in the process of collecting materials for the thesis. Last but not least, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my beloved parents for their blessings, my classmates for their help and wishes for the successful completion of this graduation thesis.
Because of time constraints and writer’s limited capacity, this thesis will certainly not be free from defect. I hope the teachers and readers will sympathize and contribute to complete the thesis. Sincerely! Hanoi, June 2012 ii ABSTRACT Foreign Direct Investment plays an important role in the Vietnam economy. FDI companies contributed approximately 20% to the GDP, 35% to the industrial output, 52% to export.
Indirectly FDI has provided some more employment through sub-contractors or suppliers. After Vietnam joined World Trade Organization, Vietnam became one of the Asian countries which are attractive to the investors all over the world to put their capital in. Recently, the global financial crisis has caused bad effects to the national economy. FDI is not an exception.
Particularly, the proportion of implemented FDI in registered FDI has recorded a historical decrease from 35% in 2007 to approximately 15% in 2008. In addition, there was a shift in the target sector of FDI from manufacturing to servicing industry. The drop of FDI inflows to Vietnam leads to the decline in the contribution to the nation GDP of FDI sectors and the increasing rate of unemployment. Although the financial crisis in 2008 has brought about many negative impacts on the FDI attractiveness of Vietnam, from this, Vietnam can also draw a lesson for the future development.
In order to have a stable source of foreign direct investment, Vietnam should consider iii improve in aspects like economy, legal frame work and human resource and infrastructure. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES.
v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. 3 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK. An overview of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Definition and classification. Benefits and costs of FDI. Financial crises and their impacts on FDI. Definition and classification.
Causes of financial crises. Impacts of financial crises on FDI flows. 15 CHAPTER 3: IMPACTS OF 2008 FINANCIAL CRISIS ON FDI THE CASE OF VIETNAM. An overview in 2008 global financial crisis.
Timeline of global financial crisis in 2008. Causes of global financial crisis of 2008. The case of Vietnam. The signs of financial crisis in Vietnam.
Impacts of financial crisis on FDI to Vietnam. 35 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 41 v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 3.1: Fed Funds Rate .2: US housing price index .3: US subprime lending expanded significantly 2004-2006 .4: Vietnam GDP – real growth rate .5: Quarterly GDP of Vietnam in 2007 and 2008 .6: Inflation rate of Vietnam compared with other economies .7: CPI of Vietnam from 2008 to 2010 .8: Vietnam’s Exports and Imports .9: Vietnam’s unemployment rate .10: FDI to Vietnam from 2000 to 2010 .1: Registered, implemented FDI .2: Top 5 industries attracting the highest registered FDI .37 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FDI Foreign Direct Investment GDP Gross Domestic Product CPI Consumer Price Index MNE Multinational Enterprise MPI Ministry of Planning and Investment LDCs Less Developed Countries NDCs Newly Developed Countries M&A Merger and acquisition TNCs Transnational Corporations MBSs Mortgage-backed Securities CDO Collateralized Debt Obligations CDS Credit Default Swaps 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Background One of the striking developments in Vietnam in recent years has been the large external capital inflows which are mostly in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI).
Vietnam has emerged as a leading recipient of FDI flows, compared to the size of economy, thanks largely to its initial progress in macroeconomic stabilization, improved investment regime, and outward orientation. According to the official statistics released from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), since March 2007, Vietnam has received a total of 7067 foreign direct investment projects with the total investment capital of US$ 63.5 billion (of which the legal capital is US$ 27.7 billion and the implemented capital is US$30. Those figures keep increasing the years after. The effect of FDI has been largely positive on Vietnam’s domestic economy, providing an engine of economic growth by increasing productive capacity and enhancing productivity.
Foreign-invested operations now contribute to nearly 20 percent of Vietnam’s GDP, 52 percent of total exports and millions of jobs. Due to various contributions of FDI corporations, it can be said that, FDI is an important factor that affects all economic, cultural and social aspect of the national economy. 2 Because of the huge contribution of FDI to the development of Vietnamese economy, any changes in the investment flows will cause specific effects on the whole economy. As a result, study on trend of FDI flows will show the government methods to take advantage of the FDI attractiveness of the country in order to ensure a stable development of the economy.
In addition, in 2007 and 2008, when the global financial crisis struck, Vietnam was not out of the influences. The research will bring about a deep insight on the impacts of the economic regression on FDI flows to Vietnam in terms of capital scale and target sectors. Once the problems have been pointed out, it is necessary to look at the recommendations for limiting the negative effects in the future. More importantly, it will be a precious lesson for Vietnam to consider when the country is currently facing another crisis which is Euro Debt crisis.
No one can be sure that whether this crisis will affect on the FDI attractiveness of Vietnam or not. As a result, looking back at the same situation on the past, the nation will have an overview of what need to be done in order to limit the influences of the crisis on FDI flows to Vietnam during crisis 3 1. Research objectives The thesis aims at finding out to what extent the 2008 global financial crisis can influence the FDI flows to Vietnam. Vietnam can learn from this regression in order to ensure the FDI attractiveness of the country in the future.
Research question This thesis aspires to provide answers to the question of concerns for practitioners: What are the impacts of global financial crisis on FDI flows to Vietnam? 1. Data sources The analysis is mainly based on reliable sources of secondary data which are collected from a wide range of sources, namely country reports, industry reports, news reports, and database of reliable market data providers such as numbers of universities’ researches. Thesis structure The thesis consists of four main chapters: I) Introduction II) Theoretical framework III) Analysis and results IV) Recommendations and conclusions. 4 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.
An overview of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) 2. Definition and classification Foreign direct investment (FDI) refers to the equity funds invested in another country. FDI most commonly involves investment in industrialized countries, but there may also be investment in Less Developed Countries (LDCs) such as Eastern Europe or China, or Newly Developed Countries (NDCs) such as South Korea or Singapore (University of Sunderland, 2004) There are two methods that countries can consider when they want to invest in a foreign country including green field investment and M&A (merger and acquisition). Firstly FDI may be carried out though green-field investment by which home countries (investors) establish a completely new operation in the host countries (countries receiving investment).
Secondly FDI can also be carried out through merger and acquisition by which the home countries directly purchase a company or form a partnership with existing businesses in host countries. FDI can come to different categories. Firstly, from home countries’ perspective, FDI can be categorized into 2 types including horizontal FDI and vertical FDI. Horizontal FDI is taken for the purpose of horizontal expansion to produce the same 5 or similar kinds of goods abroad (in the host country) as in the home country.
Vertical FDI on the other hand is undertaken for the purpose of exploiting raw materials (backward vertical FDI) or to be nearer to the consumers through the acquisition of distribution outlet (forward vertical FDI). Secondly from host countries’ perspective, FDI can be divided into three groups including import substituting FDI, export-increasing FDI and government-initiated FDI. Import substituting FDI involves the production of goods previously imported by the host country. It implies that the imports by the host country and exports by the investing country will decline.
This type of FDI is likely to be determined by the size of the host country’s market, transportation cost and trade barrier. Export increasing FDI on the other hand is motivated by the desire to seek new sources of input such as raw materials and finished goods. This type of FDI means that the host country will increase its exports of raw materials and immediate products to the investing countries and other countries (where the subsidies of the corporation are located). Government-initiated FDI may be trigger, for example, when a government offers incentives to foreign investors in attempt to eliminate deficit of balance of payment.
Benefits and costs of FDI a. Benefits for home country Transportation costs: In the case of products with a low value-to-weight ratio, the cost of transporting products can be significant. For example it is more effective for cement to be produced close to the market in order to save transporting costs. Market imperfections: These may relate to tariffs or exchange rates that increase the cost of exporting; a company may find it cheaper to install computers in the host country than pay a tariff when each computer is exported.
Market imperfections may also relate to the sale of know-how. A business may be concerned that it will lose control over its knowledge, over the quality of the products made by the licensor, or over the supply of materials and components. Strategic behavior: If a relatively small number of competing businesses dominate an industry, they tend to copy each other’s behavior. They are trying to avoid a situation in which a competitor gains significant competitive advantage.
For example, after Honda invested in Europe in the 1980s, Toyota and Nissan rapidly carried out similar programs. The product life-cycle: Home country can take advantage of the early stage of product life-cycle in foreign countries in order to introduce its products. For 7 example, photocopiers were first developed in the US by Xerox. Xerox developed FDI through joint ventures.
When patents expired, other companies developed their own products and started to export them to the US. Eventually, Japanese companies also developed FDI, transferring their production to developing countries such as Singapore or Thailand. Location specific advantage: Companies may identify the availability of a low-cost, high-skill, workforce (as shown by British companies setting call centers in India). They may want to benefit from being near to a source of suitable raw materials.
Or they may want to benefit from working in an environment where they can meet the suitable staff, and quickly gain relevant new knowledge.