Vietnam encourages Japanese investment in support industry

Vietnam is willing to introduce preferential policies to attract Japanese investment in support industry.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong affirmed this at two separate seminars on promoting investment in support industry, which were held by the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and Japanese partners, in Tokyo, Japan, on September 5 and 6.

During the seminars, aimed at introducing the potential of Vietnam’s support industry, Deputy Minister Dong spoke of Vietnam’s policies for foreign investors, especially those who are interested in support industry – an important sector for automobiles, electronics, and other industries.

Dong said the Vietnamese Government will create favourable conditions for Japanese businesses, most of which are small- and medium-sized and facing financial and human resource difficulties in finding locations and clearing administrative procedures.

Vietnam plans to open at least one or two industrial zones for Japanese businesses investing in support industry, where they will be provided with land, infrastructure, and other necessary facilities, he said.

Not far from Japan, Vietnam will be a gateway for Japanese businesses to penetrate ASEAN and Chinese markets, and with major corporations such as Canon, Samsung, and Kyocera operating in Vietnam, they will have a good chance to pick up the slack.

Addressing the seminar, Susumu Kato, Vice Chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), said Japanese businesses are very interested in Vietnam’s support industry.

Japanese businesses are looking forward to the implementation of the third phase of the Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative on improving the investment environment

Kyohei Takahashi, co chairman of the Japan-Vietnam Economic Committee, highly appreciated Vietnam’s idea of opening industrial zones for Japanese businesses. He said Keidanren will work closely with the Vietnamese Government to realize it.

Takahashi proposed Vietnam upgrade the infrastructure, protect intellectual property, and push through administrative reform in order to attract Japanese investment.

Lack of labourers is also a serious problem facing foreign businesses in Vietnam, he said, proposing that Vietnam promote the training of human resource for support industry.

Japan hopes that Vietnam will be capable of building a string of vocational training centres to assist businesses with human resources, he noted.

Representatives of Sumitomo and Toshiba also appreciated Vietnam’s investment environment.

Shinichi Kawakami from Sumitomo Corporation said his company now has five subsidiaries with a total of 13,000 workers in Vietnam.

“We are planning to expand our production chains in Vietnam and increase the number of workers to 20,000,” he said. – VOV

Tags: invest in Vietnam, Japan investment in Vietnam, Vietnam FDI, Vietnam investment