"being" as a present participle

Question

Here is part of an article from Vietnam Economy.

We were particularly impressed by:

The interest and participation by various government agencies, which made us feel comfortable about investing here;
Vietnam being well placed geographically, enabling us to export globally;
The use of steel being well understood, with Vietnam being a leader within Southeast Asia in the use of steel in construction;
Vietnam’s high quality workforce.

Source: "Building on prospects", Vietnam Economy.
Link: http://www.vietmaz.com/2009/04/building-on-prospects/

My friend and I discussed about the using of "being" in phrases above.
Here is what I said. Please check if I am wrong somewhere. I really feel bad to give the wrong information although I have no problem at all in receiving wrong information from others.
(it actually helps me understand much better)

"Being" is used as a present participle in those phrases. It modifies the noun preceded.

"Vietnam being well placed geographically, enabling us to export globally;" = "Vietnam which is well placed geographically, enabling us to export globally;"

I also said that this is the case in which the relative pronoun is omitted.
However, here is what my friend was confused.

From my version (which include "which is") if "which is" is omitted, then shouldn't "Vietnam well placed geographically, enabling us to export globally;"?

And this is her suggestion:
"Vietnam being well placed geographically, enabling us to export globally;" = "Vietnam which is being well placed geographically, enabling us to export globally;"

I don't think that she is right here. In my opinion, the present simple should be used instead of the present continuous because what being said here is a fact.

I'd like to hear the opinion of native speakers.
Thanks.

GPY · Accepted Answer

Square"Vietnam being well placed geographically, enabling us to export globally;" = "Vietnam which is well placed geographically, enabling us to export globally;"

The full context is "We were particularly impressed by Vietnam being well placed geographically, enabling us to export globally". The meaning is similar to "We were particularly impressed by the fact that Vietnam is well placed geographically, ...". Formally, it could be written "We were particularly impressed by Vietnam's being well placed geographically..."

The closest form using "which is" would be "We were particularly impressed by Vietnam, which is well placed geographically, ..." (note comma after "Vietnam"). The meaning of this is slightly different. It is first and foremost saying that they were impressed by Vietnam, and the fact that it is well placed is given as additional information. It would not make sense in the overall context, because they are listing different aspects or qualities of Vietnam.

The next point about the use of steel works in a similar way.

Square · Answer

Thanks a lot, GPY.

I have to admit that I didn't know that "We were particularly inpressed by" should be taken into account.
I am curious to know more about the sentence written formally.
"We were particularly impressed by Vietnam's being well placed geographically..."
Does this sentence mean that they only impressed by the state of being well placed of Vietnam as opposed to the one below?
"We were particularly impressed by Vietnam, which is well placed geographically, ..."

GPY · Answer

SquareI have to admit that I didn't know that "We were particularly inpressed by" should be taken into account.

Right, all the bullet points logically and grammatically continue on from "We were particularly impressed by ...".

Square"We were particularly impressed by Vietnam's being well placed geographically..."Does this sentence mean that they only impressed by the state of being well placed of Vietnam as opposed to the one below?"We were particularly impressed by Vietnam, which is well placed geographically, ..."

The version with "Vietnam being well placed" and the version with "Vietnam's being well placed" both mean the same thing -- that they were impressed by Vietnam's "state of being well placed", or, in other words, the fact that Vietnam is well placed. The use of "Vietnam's" here is formal, perhaps to the point of appearing pedantic to some people.

CalifJim · Answer

SquareWe were particularly impressed by ... Vietnam being well placed geographically ...

I agree completely with GPY's paraphrase with "the fact that".

We were particularly impressed by ............... Vietnam being well placed geographically.
We were particularly impressed by the fact that Vietnam is well placed geographically.

Whenever you have some sort of fact like that which has to be expressed after a preposition (by) you substitute being for forms of be (is, are, ...).

Similarly,

The tourists have to rely on .................... there being maps of the subway system in every station.
The tourists have to rely on the fact that there are .....maps of the subway system in every station.
____________

The same is true for subjects and objects of sentences and for verbs other than be. Paraphrases other than "the fact that" may be necessary in other cases.

I don't like Steve being late so often.

The subject of "being" is placed in the possessive in more formal contexts. (You can't do this for there as in the example shown above.)

I don't like Steve's being late so often.

CJ

"being" as a present participle

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