Japanese businesses are becoming more interested in Ho Chi Minh City, as a matter of fact, the city has signed many cooperation programmes with Japanese localities, said the Vietnam Economic News.

Since the beginning of this year, Ho Chi Minh City leaders have received many Japanese business delegations and high ranking Japanese officials on their visits to Vietnam to explore business opportunities in the city.

Ho Chi Minh City has become the most attractive Vietnamese locality to Japanese investors. Currently, Japanese businesses have 668 investment projects in the city with total capital amounting to 25 billion USD. The city is expected to receive more investment from Japanese businesses in the time to come.

Recently, Saitama Prefecture Governor Kyoshu led a delegation to visit Ho Chi Minh City. He said that Saitama Prefecture had advantages in the field of cosmetics production, safe vegetables and electronic technology. Currently, 58 companies from Saitama Prefecture are operational in Vietnam and they highly appreciated the investment environment as well as the abundance of human resources in Vietnam.

As many as 150 Japan's Ehime Prefecture and Vietnamese businesses took part in a recent workshop in HCM City to exchange information and seek their partners. Ehime Prefecture’s Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and the Ho Chi Minh City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (HEPZA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), under which the two sides would create the best conditions for businesses from Ehime Prefecture to invest in export processing and industrial zones (EPZs and IZs) in the city.

Under the MOU, the two sides will share information and promote exchanges between Vietnamese and Japanese businesses. Ehime Prefecture’s Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises will act as a bridge between the Ehime Prefecture's businesses and HCM City's businesses to seek investment opportunities in Ho Chi Minh City. HEPZA will provide them with information and consultancy and help them complete administrative procedures required for investment in EPZs and IZs in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Head of HEPZA Vu Van Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City currently has 16 EPZs and IZs with total area of 3,614ha; these EPZs and IZs have attracted 1,314 investment projects with total capital of 8.83 billion USD, generating jobs for 275,000 workers (these include 528 projects with foreign direct investment with total capital of about 5 billion USD). Businesses based in Ho Chi Minh City’s EPZs and IZs have earned annual import, export value of nearly 4 billion USD.

Vu Van Hoa added that the Ho Chi Minh City local government offered FDI businesses treatment of preference and encouraged them to invest in the fields of electricity, electronics, petrochemicals, engineering and food processing.-VNA