News-Info-Alerts

Re: Pete Peterson Moves On

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: March 21, 2002

"Ex-U.S. Ambassador Starts Company

By BRENT KALLESTAD, Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Pete Peterson, a former prisoner-of-war in Vietnam who later became U.S. ambassador to the nation, said Tuesday he is starting a new company to increase the United States' business presence in Southeast Asia.

"There is a huge untapped market for American business in this important region," Peterson said. "The upside for our economy is enormous."

A former Air Force pilot who spent more than six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Peterson served six years in Congress representing the Florida Panhandle before returning to Vietnam in 1997 as the United States' first postwar ambassador.

He made a brief entry into the 2002 Florida gubernatorial race last summer, but withdrew from the Democratic field shortly after Sept. 11. Peterson resigned from his post as ambassador to Vietnam to make the run for governor.

Peterson, 66, his Vietnamese-born wife, Vi Le, and Robert Schiffer, former vice president for Investment Development at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, are the principals and primary investors in the new corporation, Peterson International.

Vi Le Peterson previously served as the senior trade representative in Vietnam for the government of Australia.

Peterson said the company is not pushing any specific product. He said he would travel in the next several weeks looking for investors and companies interested in doing business in Vietnam.

"The whole idea of us going back to Vietnam is to make sure we don't lose the momentum for the initiatives we put in place by improving the relationship between the United States and Vietnam," Peterson said.

Peterson said half of Vietnam's 80 million people are under age 25. He described the population as young, literate and hardworking, although per capital income remains low.

"They're underdeveloped and need American investment to help build them out and set up their economies to where they can reach their potential," Peterson said. He said Japan, Australia, Singapore and South Korea invest heavily in Vietnam.

"The demand for western goods and services is rising rapidly," he said. "If we provide supply for this demand, the number of American jobs created could be astonishing."

Dave Humphrey, a finance professor at Florida State University, said Vietnam has an efficient work force.

"They're very reliable and industrious," Humphrey said. "It's a good part of the world to do labor intensive things with skilled labor which doesn't cost very much, not unlike what we do on the border with Mexico." "