The information was shared at a Vietnam-Japan investment cooperation forum, which recently wrapped up in Yokohama, Japan.
According to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, Vu Dai Thang, in recent years, Vietnam-Japan relations have been constantly developing. Japan is the largest official development assistance (ODA) provider for Vietnam, its second largest foreign investor, third largest travel partner and its fourth largest trade partner.
In the Southeast Asian country, Japan has invested in over 3,865 valid projects, with total registered capital worth US$56 billion, accounting for 16.7% of the total FDI inflows into Vietnam.
A recent report from the Japan External Trade Organisation showed that the investment environment in Vietnam has received positive comments from the Japanese business community, in which 87.7% of Japanese businesses believed that expanding their business in Vietnam help them to increase their benefits. More than 60% of Japanese businesses were profitable in 2017 and 66.6% of those investing in Vietnam are planning to expand their business and continue to see Vietnam as a key investment destination.
In recent years, Japanese corporations have been very active in the equitisation of Vietnamese enterprises and have become strategic partners of large enterprises in the key sectors of Vietnam’s economy, such as finance, banking, aviation, energy and pharmaceuticals.
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Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Vu Dai Thang speaks at the forum. (Photo: VOV)
Vietnam is promoting mergers and acquisitions associated with the equitisation of large SOEs in such areas as transportation, infrastructure, food stuffs, agriculture, telecommunications, services, tourism and construction.
"This is a great opportunity for Japanese investors and businesses to become strategic partners of Vietnamese enterprises in areas with great potential for development," Deputy Minister Thang affirmed, adding that the Vietnamese Government has pledged to continue creating favourable conditions for Japanese enterprises to participate in equitisation and become strategic partners of Vietnamese enterprises.
Japanese companies could invest in manufacturing facilities in Vietnam or cooperate with local partners to export the items that Japanese market is lacking back to Japan, especially the products that are strengths of the Vietnamese agricultural sector, Thang suggested.
