Aeon Vietnam, a subsidiary of the leading Japanese retail and financial services corporation Aeon, officially announced its presence in Ho Chi Minh City on Mar. 2.

Aeon Group’s CEO Motoya Okada, said he believes that Aeon will become one of Vietnam ’s leading retailers by 2020.

He highlighted the tremendous potential in Vietnam ’s retail market, which has already attracted a lot of foreign investors.

Aeon is always committed to building close relationships with local authorities and communities and will make a significant contribution to the country's socio-economic development, said Okada.

Aeon Vietnam has a chartered capital of 101 million USD and investment capital of 109 million USD.

It plans to begin construction of the 77,000 sq.m Aeon-Tan Phu Celadon shopping centre in HCM City in September 2012 and open it to the public in 2014.

The centre will provide space for a supermarket and 130 shops, including a third specially reserved for leading Vietnamese brand names, a third for Japanese outlets and the remainder for other international retailers.

Aeon Vietnam General Director Nishitoge Yasuo said that Aeon is planning to build 20 shopping centres up and down the country by 2020. These centres will modernise Vietnam ’s retail industry and help with Vietnamese exports to Japan .

The company will use the latest technologies and organise training courses to train up the local work force for the domestic retail sector, he added.-VNA