A motorised vehicle spare part production line at the Nissin Manufacturing Vietnam Company. (Source: Danang) More than 80 Japanese businesses participated in a conference on trade and investment promotion in the central city of Da Nang on August 28.
Speaking at the event, Chief Representative of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) Atsusuke Kawada said 66 percent of the Japanese enterprises currently operating in Vietnam have plans to expand their operation in the country, a rate higher than in many nations. He added that 84 percent of the firms said the expansion is to raise their turnover.
Half of them expressed their confidence in Vietnam’s socio-political stability while nearly 47 percent highly valued the country’s market scale and growth, he said.
The JETRO Chief Representative stressed Japanese businesses’ hope for simplified procedures and free import and operation duties in Vietnam.
According to him, Japan was the largest investor in Vietnam in 2012 and 2013 in terms of capital. Although its investments dropped in 2014, the country still took the lead in the number of projects. The trend remained during the first seven months of this year due to the Japanese yen’s decline and the completion of major investment projects. On the contrary, small-and-medium-scaled projects have increased to support the operating businesses.
Last year, Japan had 342 newly-licensed projects and the figure stood at 176 in the January-July period of 2015, Kawada noted.
Da Nang was the first Vietnamese locality to open its representative office in Tokyo in 2004.
With the biggest number of Japanese language learners in the central region, Da Nang has pioneered in piloting the teaching of the Japanese language in junior and senior high schools.
The central city also houses the largest number of Japanese companies, branches and representative offices in the region.
At present, the locality is calling for Japanese investments in a range of projects, including a hi-tech park, an industrial zone for Japanese small- and medium-sized enterprises, and a resort for Japanese older people.
On this occasion, a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in personnel exchange and Japanese language teaching was signed by Route Inn Group of Japan and Da Nang’s East Asia University.-VNA
