Foreign Investment United States

The Federal Communications Commission voted Tuesday to open the nation's $200-billion telecommunications market to greater foreign competition and in a separate action proposed that all new radio and TV licenses be sold to the highest bidder. The two decisions together represent a further embrace of market competition by the federal agency and will likely spur additional consolidation in the booming telecommunications industry.

The Federal Communications Commission voted Tuesday to open the nation's $200-billion telecommunications market to greater foreign competition and in a separate action proposed that all new radio and TV licenses be sold to the highest bidder. The two decisions together represent a further embrace of market competition by the federal agency and will likely spur additional consolidation in the booming telecommunications industry.

Vietnam agreed Monday to repay more than $145 million in debts to the United States incurred by the defeated South Vietnamese regime, eliminating a major roadblock to the normalization of economic and trade relations between Washington and Hanoi. Hanoi's commitment came in an accord signed jointly by Vietnamese Finance Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung and U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, who is visiting Hanoi this week as part of a trip through Southeast Asia. U.S.

The United States and Vietnam have reached broad agreement on a sweeping economic deal meant to turn the former military foes into trading partners, sources said Wednesday. Even as trade negotiators continued to work on a few technical details, the Clinton administration was turning its attention to plans for a signing ceremony that could take place within the next several days.

Nippon Restaurant Enterprise Co. came to California to make something it couldn't make anywhere else: lunch. The Tokyo company wanted a factory that had access to high-quality ingredients, abundant labor and a business-friendly government. That ruled out Japan, China and Mexico. So, three years ago, Nippon Restaurant built a plant in Fairfield, southwest of Sacramento, that makes 9,000 bento lunchboxes a day.