Vietnam Thundering Into World Economy

(CBS/AP)  Vietnamese officials announced Tuesday that chip-making monolith Intel has been granted permission to increase their investment in the communist country from $300 million to $1 billion.

The announcement came on the same day that the World Trade Organization formally extended its invitation to Vietnam for membership in the Geneva-based body. Both developments are clear signs that Vietnam is ready to explode onto the greater global economy, and hit the ground running.

Intel is constructing a $300 million chip assembly and testing plant in Ho Chi Minh City. Its original license, granted in February, allowed the company to invest up to $605 million.

The government has since approved an amended license allowing Intel to invest up to $1 billion and increase its production capacity, said Nguyen Anh Tuan, director of the Information Technology Industry at the Ministry of Telematics.

The deal is considered a significant step forward in Vietnam's campaign to attract foreign investors. It is already the largest single U.S. investment in the country since the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

Intel has scheduled an announcement for Friday in Ho Chi Minh City, but would not disclose its specific plans.

The organization's general council approved the accession terms for Vietnam with the fall of a gavel from WTO chief Pascal Lamy.

Vietnam completed 11 years of entry talks with the Geneva-based group last month.

The communist country can join 30 days after its National Assembly signs the accord, which it is expected to do swiftly.

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[cathaleen]

I saw Merrill Lynch run out of Hanoi when our troops were going into Vietnam. I knew that someday they would be back. Just check around the world.
Someday they'll be in Baghdad.

[sharncedar]

It seems only communist countries who kill all their rich people are getting rich these days, they are getting all the investments instead of the US, they are seeing all the growth and hype.

Maybe we should start some communism and purge our rich here in the US, so the international banking community will give us some money, too.

[marcelde]

"Mission Accomplished!"

Unlearned HISTORY LESSON OF VIETNAM

George Bush's triumphal announcement of "Mission Accomplished" could be viewed as correct if we agree that the mission was to kill thousands of our troops, uncounted civilians, destroy the infrastructure of Iraq, erode any residual respect of the rest of the world for us, and set the stage for a bloody civil war in Iraq. ===

In accomplishing that "mission" we have already lost over 2,800 U.S. military, diverted critical funds from the War on Terror, and, TO QUOTE RUMSFELD, %u2026 %u201CSTILL HAVE NOT LEARNED HISTORY%u2019S LESSONS%u201D ===

THE HISTORY LESSON RUMSFELD SHOULD BE LEARNING is THE TRAGIC LESSON OF VIETNAM where an unpopular "police action" was fabricated to stop the "domino effect" of spreading Communism. === Those who suggest we "still have not learned history's lessons" ignore 58,249 soldiers that needlessly died there. THAT WAR LEFT VIETNAM A COMMUNIST COUNTRY, LIKE CHINA, BUT OUR TRADING PARTNER. Those who objected to that war want to Support Our Troops" by bringing them home out of harm's way. We need to actively resist mindless leaders who suggest that Weapons of Mass Destruction, never found in Iraq, are the cause of 911, and that every culture is eager to embrace our form of democracy. Our soldiers who are dying in Iraq are another "Inconvenient Truth" just as those in 1970 whose names are engraved on the Vietnam War Memorial.

[marcelde]

"Mission Accomplished!"

Unlearned HISTORY LESSON OF VIETNAM

George Bush's triumphal announcement of "Mission Accomplished" could be viewed as correct if we agree that the mission was to kill thousands of our troops, uncounted civilians, destroy the infrastructure of Iraq, erode any residual respect of the rest of the world for us, and set the stage for a bloody civil war in Iraq. ===

In accomplishing that "mission" we have already lost over 2,800 U.S. military, diverted critical funds from the War on Terror, and, TO QUOTE RUMSFELD, %u2026 %u201CSTILL HAVE NOT LEARNED HISTORY%u2019S LESSONS%u201D ===

THE HISTORY LESSON RUMSFELD SHOULD BE LEARNING is THE TRAGIC LESSON OF VIETNAM where an unpopular "police action" was fabricated to stop the "domino effect" of spreading Communism. === Those who suggest we "still have not learned history's lessons" ignore 58,249 soldiers that needlessly died there. THAT WAR LEFT VIETNAM A COMMUNIST COUNTRY, LIKE CHINA, BUT OUR TRADING PARTNER. Those who objected to that war want to Support Our Troops" by bringing them home out of harm's way. We need to actively resist mindless leaders who suggest that Weapons of Mass Destruction, never found in Iraq, are the cause of 911, and that every culture is eager to embrace our form of democracy. Our soldiers who are dying in Iraq are another "Inconvenient Truth" just as those in 1970 whose names are engraved on the Vietnam War Memorial.