Vietnam Pledges Further Facilitation to Japanese Investors

The Vietnamese Government will create a climate more favorable to foreign investors, particularly those from Japan, the communist Minister of Planning and Investment told a seminar on investment into Vietnam in Tokyo Thursday.

 

Vietnam will continue implementing policies of renovation, rapidly develop the private economic sector, promote external economic relations and international economic co-operation, fully develop the market economy, reform the legal system and accelerate administrative reform towards attracting foreign investment, Minister Vo Hong Phuc said.

 

The seminar, aimed to provide Japanese business leaders a better understanding of Vietnam’s investment environment, lured about 100 representatives of Japanese businesses.

 
At the seminar, held by the Vietnamese Embassy and the Japanese Organization for Promotion of People’s Exchanges (FEC), Minister Phuc informed the participants of Vietnam's socio-economic development strategy in the next five years and the Common Investment Law, which will take effect on July 1, 2006.

He noted that after the two countries signed the investment protection and promotion agreement, through the Joint Japan-Vietnam Investment Initiative, a new wave of Japanese investment in Vietnam has begun and more and more Japanese investors are pouring investment into the country.

 
“We hope the wave gets stronger,” said Mr Phuc.

Japanese businesses showed their interest in infrastructure facilities for investment projects, including ports, financial market development, and enterprise income tax. They said the availability of information on the investment environments of Vietnamese localities on the Internet remains poor, so the country should establish a database to introduce a list of Vietnamese companies for trade partnership to Japanese businesses.

The vice president of FEC said that Vietnam is Japan’s leading partner and that developing the partnership with the country is the right choice. He said he is confident that economic ties between Vietnam and Japan will further develop in the coming time.

After the seminar, the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan will co-ordinate with Vietnamese agencies and Japanese partners to carry out other activities to promote a second wave of Japanese investment in Vietnam.

 

Japan now ranks Vietnam’s third largest investor with 640 projects costing over $6.7 billion. The figures in the first four months this year were 32 projects and $307.6 million.