More than 50 Japanese firms operating in the fields of general trading, machinery manufacturing, components, iron and steel, beverages, aerospace, hardware, IT solutions, chemicals, laws, consulting, cosmetics and education, led by Mr Kohei Watanabe, Chairman of the Japan - Mekong Business Committee, had a direct meeting with Vietnamese enterprises. The meeting was held in Hanoi by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in collaboration with the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCI).
The event is among the activities celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Japan.
The Japanese companies came to explore the market and look for business partners and investment opportunities in Vietnam.
According to Dr Vu Tien Loc, VCCI President, Vietnam is building up an industrialisation strategy. Therefore, in the time to come, Vietnam will focus on such areas as supporting industry, tourism, services, electronics, automobiles and motorcycles, chemicals, etc., which are the areas in which Japanese companies are strong at so that both sides can cooperate more closely and successfully in these areas in the future.
"VCCI will serve as a bridge linking the two sides to create more favourable conditions for the cooperation between the two sides in the future," said Dr Loc.
Mr Kohei Watanabe said that in the past five years, Japan has always been one of the leading investors in Vietnam. As of 20th August, 2013, Japan is the leading foreign investor in Vietnam in total registered investment capital, which mounts up to US$33.06 billion. Besides, Japan ranks third in the number of projects with a total of 2,029 projects and ranks second in implemented capital of US$10.8 billion.
In 2012, Japanese investors in Vietnam reached a record high in turnover. This trend will continue this year and is expected to increase in the future.
In addition, as Vietnam’s leading strategic partner and the largest provider of ODA, as well as top foreign investor in Vietnam, Japan has made important and positive contributions to and effectively supported Vietnam's power sector through power projects and power transmission and distribution projects. So far, there have been 12 projects funded by Japanese ODA loans of over JPY400 billion (US$5 billion) in total.
Besides power projects, Japanese companies are also involved in many other important projects of industries, supporting industry and energy, such as Nghi Son Oil Refinery Complex, and the project on construction of transshipment line for coal supply to thermal power centres in the Mekong Delta.
Mr Kohei Watanabe hopes that through this meeting, the two sides will seize the opportunity to directly meet each other to exchange information, initiate business contacts and seek potential partners in their fields of interest.
The statistics show that trade and investment between Vietnam and Japan are growing stronger. In the first eight months of 2013, bilateral trade reached US$16.3 billion, of which Vietnam exported US$8.8 billion to Japan. The trade surplus of Vietnam remains with the surplus of US$1.3 billion, an increase of 28.4 percent over the same period in 2012.
The structure of Vietnam’s major exported items of recent time has been changed. In addition to the items which have already experienced strong growth such as wooden furniture, handicraft and fisheries, machinery and mechanical appliances, phones, computers, cameras, vehicles and steel products are also exported in large quantities to the Japanese market. Particularly, recently, many agricultural products such as dragon fruit, cut flowers, coffee, rice and processed foods, have started to gain a presence in the Japanese market, although their export value remains small.
Huong- Anh
Vietnamese
