Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Trade, 7-18-02 Testimony

Statement of Barry L. Clark, President, Pacific Ventures, Incorporated, Tulsa, Oklahoma,
and Director, Vietnam Trade Office, Oklahoma Department of Commerce

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Trade
of the House Committee on Ways and Means

Hearing on Renewal of the President's Waiver for Vietnam
from the Jackson-Vanik Freedom of Emigration Requirements

July 18, 2002

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee, for the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Barry Clark and I am President of Pacific Ventures, which is an Oklahoma-based consulting and private equity company. Our headquarters is in Tulsa, Oklahoma with field offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The focus of our consulting business has been to assist American companies entering the Vietnamese market. We have been in Vietnam since 1995, one year after President Clinton lifted the trade embargo. From my first visit to Vietnam in 1993, to moving there in 1995 for three years, I have witnessed firsthand the dramatic changes as Vietnam took the first uncertain steps towards a market economy. These changes are providing new economic and civic hopes for many Vietnamese people-and new business opportunities for American companies. Similar to most people doing business in Vietnam, our challenges have been frequent, and time-consuming, but never the less, we are seeing real and significant success as a result of the improved trade relations between the United States and Vietnam.

In addition to our private endeavors, Pacific Ventures also represents the State of Oklahoma, Department of Commerce. In September 1996 the State of Oklahoma became the first state of any nation to open a trade office in Vietnam. Through our company infrastructure Oklahoma now has offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City with a staff of ten Vietnamese and two Americans. Oklahoma is still the only American state to have a full-time presence in Vietnam. The reason the State of Oklahoma opened this trade office was due to several of Oklahoma's major industries matching those of Vietnam's. The industries are of vital importance to both economies. Some of those industries include, but are not limited to, oil and gas, agriculture, education, and infrastructure development. For the businesses we represent directly and through our ties to the State of Oklahoma, we manage the daily challenges of arranging meetings, securing licenses, conducting market research, and identifying potential partners, distributors, and agents. It is significant that Oklahoma, ranked 38^th in overall international exports, ranks 13^th in exports to Vietnam with over ten million dollars in export sales.

Through our contract with the State of Oklahoma, Pacific Ventures has led fourteen delegations of Oklahoma businesses and institutions to Vietnam to sell Oklahoma-made goods and services as well as eight delegations from Vietnam, that have come to Oklahoma to purchase equipment and look for business partners.

The goods and services sold to Vietnam from Oklahoma have included oil-field service equipment, which you might expect, but also biotech products for shrimp farming, assistance in building environmentally sound landfills, beef and dairy cattle genetics, and infrastructure building equipment.

One major export for which the State of Oklahoma has great pride is education. Oklahoma has more than 9,000 foreign students studying in its colleges and universities. Oklahoma is second in the nation in the number of Vietnamese students in higher education. This next month our Governor, Frank Keating, will travel to Vietnam to sign a major education agreement between twelve Oklahoma higher education institutions and Vietnam National University. Currently, PetroVietnam, the Vietnamese national oil company, has 65 students (young people which the company sees as its future leaders) as full-tuition paying undergraduate and graduate students at the world-famous Sarkeys Energy Center of the University of Oklahoma. These students will go back to Vietnam not only with a world-class education in petroleum science and engineering, but also with a better understanding of the American way of life. We are also hopeful that they will take back a knowledge of and an appreciation for the products and services of Oklahoma companies.

The Jackson-Vanik wavier has brought about dramatic changes that are indeed part of the rising tide that is floating more hopes and dreams for Vietnamese entrepreneurs and small business owners. As the Vietnamese economy continues to emerge, the middle class is growing, the population is becoming more educated and exposed to more free market realities, and Vietnam continues to evolve into a more open and transparent society. A good example of Vietnam's new efforts towards the development of an open market economy is reflected in its new enterprise law. This law allows Vietnamese citizens to freely establish enterprises in most industries without restriction. Because of this new law, within the first two years, 2000-2002, there were over 35,000 new registered enterprises. This number exceeded the total number of registered enterprises established during the previous nine years. The number of new jobs created directly through the enterprise law encompassed over one-third of Vietnam's annual increase in the labor force. However, changes come in increments. There now exists a critical moment of opportunity between the United States and Vietnam and by extending the Jackson-Vanik waiver and continuing the implementation of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), the U.S. can best support Vietnam's on-going transition toward a sustaining market economy.

In conclusion, I want to express my appreciation to Oklahoma's government and business leaders for continuing their pioneering spirit of opening and building valuable trade relationships in global markets that will benefit future generations of Oklahomans. I would also like to thank the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam and the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Council for their continued efforts, support, and leadership on behalf of all American businesses with interest in Vietnam. They have made our work much more productive than we could have been otherwise.

Again, thank you for the privilege to be here today.