Tata eyes Vietnam for expansion strategy
Vietnam Economic Times — October 12, 2007

The Indian giant Tata Group has considered Vietnam one of the most important markets in Asia in its international expansion strategy.

“Vietnam is the most significant market for Tata at this moment, particularly in the production of industrial steel,” the group’s executive director Alan Rosling told a Vietnam News Agency reporter on the sidelines of a press conference in Hanoi on October 11.

Alan Rosling is leading a delegation including leaders of Tata Group’s companies specialising in telecommunications, steel, fertiliser, chemicals and transport on a visit to Vietnam from October 10-12 to explore investment environment and opportunities in the Southeast Asian nation.

He said that the cutting-edge of the Tata Group is in steel production and Vietnam is a potential manufacturing base to expand into international markets for the group’s products.

“Vietnam is going to become much more developed in ten years time; it is already growing by 8 per cent. If it continues at this rate for five or ten years, the country will be a very different place for foreign investors,” Rosling said.

On October 10, Alan Rosling and his entourage met with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem, and ministers and representatives of state-owned and private companies, to look into potential investment areas in Vietnam.

The Indian delegation said that in addition to steel production, the Tata Group will consider investing in the chemical, energy and telecommunications areas in Vietnam as “investment opportunities in the country are great for both domestic and abroad companies.”

In May 2007, Tata Steel, a subsidiary of the Tata Group, signed a cooperation document with the Vietnam Steel Corporation (Vinasteel) in building a steel production plant in central Ha Tinh province.

The Tata Group is made up of 96 companies working in areas of information technology and communications, manufacturing industry, materials, services, energy, consumption and chemical products. The Tata Group reached a turnover of 28 billion USD between 2006-07.