The Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade (Vietcombank) has reached a cooperation agreement with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) on providing assistance to Japanese businesses in seeking opportunities in Vietnam.

Under the deal, Vietcombank will set up a Japan Desk to provide a range of exclusive services, consultancy and products for Japanese small- and medium-sized enterprises (JSMEs) that are doing or looking to do business in Vietnam with reference from and in cooperation with JBIC and Japanese regional banks (JRBs).

This Japan Desk will function in close collaboration with JBIC and JRBs to guarantee the best concerted support to JSMEs.

Established in 1963, Vietcombank is now among the biggest commercial banks in Vietnam, with an extensive network of nearly 400 branches, transaction offices, subsidiaries and representative offices in and outside Vietnam , and more than 1,700 correspondent banks in 120 other countries and territories in the world.

Vietcombank is also the first and so far the only Vietnamese bank that made its way into the first 500 group, being the 445 th , in the latest “Top 1.000 World Banks 2013” ranking announced by The Banker in July 2013.

JBIC, headquartered in Tokyo , is a policy-based financial institution wholly owned by the Japanese government. Its role is to foster Japan ’s efforts in international economic development, support Japanese enterprises operating in overseas markets, and help maintaining the stability of the global financial environment, while complementing Japanese financial institutions. Since 2010, JBIC has been initiating the cooperative relations between JRBs and a number of prestigious financial institutions in Asian countries to support JSMEs in expanding overseas business operations.-VNA