2013: “Year of Japan - Vietnam Friendship"

Vietnam and Japan officially established diplomatic relations on September 21, 1973 and this year the two nations are celebrating 40 years of relations. On his visit to Japan in October 2011, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and former Japanese Prime Minister Noda decided to name 2013 as the “Japan - Vietnam Friendship Year" to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of diplomatic relations. This was announced under the "Japan - Vietnam Joint Declaration on action plans based on strategic partnership development for peace and prosperity in Asia", as the two sides also agreed to promote cooperation to organise celebratory programmes.

 

The Vietnam - Japan relationship has developed rapidly in various aspects and has entered a new era, focusing on quality and depth. Political relations and cultural exchanges have expanded.

 

Politically, the two countries have exchanged frequent high-ranking visits. With mutual trust, the two sides have cooperated closely in international and regional issues and supported each other in multilateral forums. Japan has always supported the Doi Moi (renovation) and opening policy of Vietnam; assisted Vietnam to enter into the region and the world (APEC, WTO, ASEM, ARF, OECD, etc.); and highly valued relations with Vietnam, underlining long-term benefits and goals. Vietnam backed Japan to run for the permanent seat at the expanded UN Security Council and mobilised Japan to support Vietnam to run for non-permanent membership to the UN Security Council for the 2008-2009 term.

 

Vietnam and Japan frequently have annual high-level meetings. Japanese Prime Ministers visited Vietnam many times (Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in August 1994, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto in January 1997, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi in December 1998, and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in April 2002). Especially, current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife paid an official visit to Vietnam on January 16-17, 2013. The Vietnam visit was part of his three-country ASEAN tour to Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore. This was also the first foreign trip made by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after taking office.

 

During this special visit, the Prime Ministers of the two countries exchanged views on deepening the bilateral strategic partnership, and promoting bilateral cooperation in politics, security, defence, economy, trade and investment.

 

The two Prime Ministers also announced the opening of the Year of Vietnam - Japan Friendship 2013, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

 

Economically, Japan is the leading trade partner and the largest investor in Vietnam. In 2012, Japanese investors registered to invest US$5.13 billion, accounting for 39.5 per cent of total foreign investment in Vietnam. As of December 15, 2012, as many as 98 countries and territories invested US$213.6 billion in 14,489 projects. Japan was the largest investor with 13.6 per cent of the total foreign capital registered in Vietnam.

 

2010 marked a significant recovery of the bilateral trade turnover with more than US$16 billion, an increase of nearly 22 per cent over 2009. In 2011, the value climbed to over US$21 billion, up 26.5 per cent over 2010, of which Vietnam's exports took US$11 billion, up 39 per cent compared the previous year. In 2012, the two-way trade turnover was US$25billion.

Besides trade and investment ties, the fine traditional friendship between Vietnam and Japan is portrayed by Japan’s valuable ODA grant for Vietnam. Since it resumed ODA funding, Japan has always been the largest donor for Vietnam by pledged ODA value, which accounts for 30 per cent of the total grants by international donors to Vietnam. In fiscal year 2011, although Japan had to deal with the twin earthquake and tsunami disaster, Japan’s ODA to Vietnam was the highest ever. In 2012, at the Consultative Group Meeting for Donors for Vietnam, Japan announced the grant of US$2.6 billion to Vietnam and pledged to continue the financing aid in the next years. In the first six months of fiscal year 2012 (ending in March 2013), Japan vowed to grant US$1.4 billion for new ODA projects. Thus, in the fiscal year 2012, Japan may hand about US$2.6 billion to Vietnam, but this value largely depends on the progress of funded projects.

 

Furthermore, the bilateral cooperation in culture and education has also flourished. The two countries have deployed training programmes, ASEAN Youth Programme (100 people a year) and exchanged cultural, voluntary and specialists. Every year, the Japanese Government provides non-refundable aid for 1 - 2 cultural projects in Vietnam.

 

Besides, in recent years, Vietnam and Japan have jointly organised many meaningful programmes and activities such as performing arts programmes, festivals and exhibitions about Japan and its people, and the Japanese Film Week in Vietnam. Japan regularly sends its experts to Vietnam to support conservation of cultural heritage work.

 

Educationally, Japan is one of the largest non-refundable aid providers for Vietnam's education and training sector. The Japanese Government has helped build nearly 260 primary schools and spent a great amount of non-refundable aid on improving education, training and scientific research capacity of many universities, as well as granting scholarships for thousands of Vietnamese students.

 

As regards tourism, Japan is also a market for the Vietnamese tourism industry. Since May 1, 2005, Vietnam and Japan have waived diplomatic and official visa requirements.

 

At the 4^th meeting of Vietnam - Japan Tourism Cooperation Committee in September 2012, the two sides agreed that they would meet every year instead of every two years (the next meeting will be organised in Hanoi), to cooperate and support each other to perform tourism market surveys, promotion and information exchange. Specifically, Japan will support Vietnam to develop tourism human resources training and development, especially Japanese-speaking guides. In turn, Vietnam will support the Department of Tourism of Japan to establish the Office for Japanese Tourism Promotion in Vietnam, as well as other activities.

 

Currently, Japan is one of the top 10 international markets of Vietnam. Average spending of Japanese tourists in Vietnam is more than US$1,000 for a 4-5 day tour. In 2011, Vietnam welcomed 480,000 tourists from Japan. In 2012, the number reached about 560,000.

 

On the strong cooperation foundation that the two countries are increasing high-level shuttle visits; actively implementing the fourth phase of Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative; realising commitments to the ASEAN - Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, and Vietnam - Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA), the strategic partnership between Vietnam and Japan is expected to further thrive in the coming time, particularly trade ties.