Filip Graovac serves as the Deputy Country Representative at The Asia Foundation’s Vietnam office and has lived in Hanoi since 2012. Prior to Hanoi, he lived and worked in Australia, UK, USA, Jordan, Yemen, and Lebanon. Filip places special importance on public-private partnership to achieve sustainability, which has resulted in partnerships with global corporations such as Mastercard, Google, Boeing, UPS, Starbucks, etc. as well as numerous Vietnamese ministries/agencies and global and local institutions of higher education. Including his cooperation with the Board IV (Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Private Sector Development), Google, Mastercard and Vietnamese business associations, he is working on country’s digital transformation and finding technological solutions to address business, social and environmental issues.

Furthermore, for the past five years, he has been part of the USAID Trade Facilitation Program which provides support to businesses engaged in cross-border trade while cooperating with the Ministry of Finance and General Department of Vietnam Customs in their adoption and implementation of a risk–based approach to customs and specialized inspection; he is leading coordination with international businesses and business associations to create a channel for businesses to provide input and influence policy advocacy and implementation.

Due to his unique experience and expertise of working in Vietnam for over 10 years, he can contribute to American businesses operating in Vietnam and support creating a more favorable business environment. He already cooperates with many of the members of AmCham directly and through his engagement with various AmCham and VBF working groups and is looking forward to building on that experience.