Advertiser Staff
Dennis G. Harter, the second-highest ranking U.S. diplomat based in Vietnam, will discuss the potential for Hawai‘i companies to do business in the Southeast Asian country when he delivers a luncheon speech tomorrow at the Hale Koa Hotel in Waikiki.
As the deputy chief of mission for the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, Harter plays a key role in encouraging U.S. trade missions to Vietnam. He is expected to review U.S.-Vietnam trade relations.
Hawai‘i figures in that recent history. The state was the first to send an official delegation to Vietnam after the United States lifted its trade embargo in 1994.
Seiji Naya, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, said yesterday that his agency intends to sponsor another mission to Vietnam in July to promote Hawai‘i’s business strengths. The state agency coordinates similar trade missions to other Asian countries, such as China, the Philippines, South Korea and Japan.
Harter’s visit to the Islands comes as U.S. trade officials are pushing for improved trade relations with Vietnam, a country of 78 million people. The visit follows Bill Clinton’s three-day presidential visit in November, when he was accompanied by 50 U.S. corporate executives interested in building business ties as both countries eventually lower import tariffs.
Other sponsors for Harter’s talk are the Vietnamese-American Chamber of Commerce and the Pacific & Asian Affairs Council. To register, call the chamber at 735-2602.
