Trade and investment cooperation between Vietnam and Japan is expected to rise sharply in the coming time as the two countries have been witnessing a series of exchanges of business delegations to boost export from Vietnam to Japan and attract more Japanese investment into Vietnam.
From February 21-24, eleven Vietnamese companies showcased lacquer products, embroidery, wooden home decorations, and bamboo-made products at a fair held in Japan for ASEAN members in Sub-Mekong region comprising of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia.
The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) has chosen a number of Vietnamese products displayed at the fair to sell at Japanese airports from March 25.
On this occasion, the Vietnamese delegation worked with the Hitachi group. The Japanese investor expressed its intention of expanding trade and investment cooperation with Vietnam in the fields of electricity and information technology.
On the sideline of the fair, two workshops were also organized to introduce trade and investment potentials in the Sub-Mekong region.
Organizing such a fair was a Japanese initiative announced at the ASEAN-Japan Summit Meeting held in Tokyo in December of 2003 to help Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia introduce their tourism and investment environment as well as export products such as fine art and handicrafts, wooden home decorations, household utensils, and garments and textiles to Japanese firms.
Early this week the leader of Japan’s Fukuoka province and accompanied enterprises expressed their hopes to leaders of Vietnam’s Hanoi capital in Hanoi to invest in the city’s information technology, banking and finance sectors.
From Feb19-23, a delegation of seventeen Japanese companies, which specialize in trading in construction materials, mechanical products, sundries, stationery, and fine art and handicraft, also arrived in Vietnam to look for Vietnamese products to sale in the Japanese supermarket network in Japan.
On February 20, The Japan DIY-Home Center Association, the Hanoi Trade Department and the Vietnam-Japan Trade Association held a seminar in Hanoi to encourage Vietnamese firms to boost exports to Japan.
Small and medium Japanese investors are now considering Vietnam as the world’s second most attractive destination for investment following China. However, up to 30 per cent of Japanese firms, especially small and medium ones, lack information about the Vietnamese market and investment environment, according to the International Financial Center of Japan.
Although Japan is ranked third among more than 70 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, Japanese direct investment into Vietnam accounted for just 1 per cent of its total global foreign investment outflow.
It has to date invested around US$6.22 billion in 591 projects in Vietnam. Japan is also Vietnam's biggest provider of official development assistance (ODA).
According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Trade, Vietnam’s export to Japan last year hit US$4.5 billion, accounting for 14.5 per cent of the country’s total export revenues and up 18 per cent over the previous year.
Vietnam and Japan will shortly sign a bilateral Economic Partnership Agreement and expect to reach a free trade agreement in the near future.
Vietnam Economic Times, Investment
Vietnamese
