Mr Hirokazu Yamaoka, Chief Representative of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Vietnam tells reporter Le Khanh about changes in Japanese enterprises’ business plans after the record earthquake and tsunami.
What is your comment on Vietnam-Japan relationship in terms of foreign direct investment so far?
In terms of FDI, I can say that the Vietnam-Japan relationship has reached great achievements. According to a survey conducted by JETRO in the beginning of this March, large number of Japanese companies in Vietnam plan to expand their production this year. Also, many Japanese companies operating in Japan and China want to transfer their production to Vietnam. So far, Japanese investors still evaluate Vietnam as the significant production base and attractive market.
How do you view Vietnam’s government assistance to Japanese enterprises in Vietnam?
The Vietnam government has improved the investment climate through Vietnam –Japan Joint initiative in the past, while Japan also helped Vietnam through some schemes like dispatching experts by ODA programs and business matching conducted by JETRO. However, the key point to promote further investment into Vietnam is to quickly solve the electricity supply and stable macro economy such as inflation control and exchange rate management.
The record earthquake and tsunami have caused a lot of troubles for Japanese enterprises; will this affect their business plans in Vietnam?
It is not so difficult to imagine the impact of this earthquake to Japanese companies operating in Vietnam. Many Japanese manufacturing companies in Vietnam rely on Japan both for material and component import and the market of final products. It may happen that they could not import or procure the material and components from Japan because of damage to their suppliers, or some material and component will be used for the restoration purpose in Japan.
I would like to deliver a message for people who conduct the promotion of investment from Japan. Due to this earthquake disaster, some Japanese investors’ “Feasibility Study tour for investment” to Vietnam are cancelled. If the recovery is delayed, FDI from Japan may decrease. On the contrary, this situation may accelerate overseas operations of Japanese enterprises. In the medium and long term view, Vietnam is still a country attracting investment from Japan.
I had chances to talk with some Vietnamese Government leaders in March. We are happy and strongly motivated that they delivered a warm and strong message to Japanese business here in Vietnam, saying that they would make their best effort to improve Japanese business here, including power supply and so on.
I expect that appropriate investment promotion policy and investment climate improvement will be conducted quickly and steadily to make Japanese investment performance better here in Vietnam.
Vietnamese
