Vietnam-Japan Business Forum Set up

VJBF is aimed to create an economic, trade and investment forum for Vietnam and Japan. The establishment of the VJBF creates an exchange channel for Vietnamese and Japanese companies, and enables them to contribute ideas to policies and provide them information on market and enterprises. The forum is operated on the basis of action plans agreed by the two countries and constructed every year.

 

For many years, Japan has been one of the leading trade partners of Vietnam and is the largest ODA sponsor to Vietnam. The total two-way trade revenue in 2005 reached some US$8.5 billion, including US$4.4 billion from Vietnamese exports. According to Mr. Ngo Van Thoan, Director of the Trade Promotion Department under the Ministry of Trade, although Japan accounted for 15 per cent of Vietnam’s total export earnings, it was still less than 1 per cent of Japan’s import expenditures. Vietnam is now ASEAN’s sixth largest exporter to Japan after Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore.

 

Major exports of Vietnam to Japan are crude oil, seafood, garment, textile and coal. Recently, apart from traditional commodities, Vietnam has exported fresh flowers, high-grade apparels and processed foodstuff to Japan. Notably, the Vietnamese content in exports and the ratio of finished products in the export turnover have been increased, especially seafood, mechanical products and IT products. At present, seafood, farm produce, processed food, household appliances, handicrafts, leather and footwear are among Vietnam’s potential exports to Japan.

Japan is the largest FDI investor in terms of capital disbursement in Vietnam with 654 effective projects with registered capital of US$6.73 billion, including US$4.9 billion disbursed, according to Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc. He said Japanese investors in Vietnam are enjoying great benefits from the close cooperation of the two countries’ governments in improving the investment environment and protecting rights and interests of Japanese enterprises in Vietnam in the past time.

 

Senator Iwao Matsuda, Minister of State for Information Technology Policy, said, Vietnam’s efforts to improve the investment environment, especially after it joins the WTO, will enable the formation of a fresh investment environment. The enactment of the Investment Law and new Enterprise Law together with the determination of the Government in improving administrative procedure and corruption fight has strengthened the trust of investors and encouraged them to expand investment scales in Vietnam.

The two sides have successfully applied the first phase of the Joint Initiative Programme of the prime ministers of the two countries in heightening competitive capacity and bettering investment environment in Vietnam. The second phase is underway. This year, Vietnam expects to attract US$600-700 million capital from Japan.