A dialogue between the Vietnamese and Japanese businesses was held in Hanoi on Sept. 24 with the aim to promote investment ties between the two countries.

The event, jointly organised by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Vietnam and Japan, took place on the occasion of a Japanese business delegation’s visit to Vietnam.

Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vu Tien Loc said Japanese businesses’ selection of Vietnam for this visit means that they place investment focus on Vietnam.

The dialogue focused on specific measures to strengthen cooperation, which hopes to create a new investment wave of Japanese enterprises, particularly small- and medium-sized firms, into Vietnam in the coming time.

Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tadashi Okamura said Japan is always among the leading foreign investors in Vietnam, while ranking third after China and the US in trade value with the country.

At present, more than 1,000 Japanese enterprises are investing in Vietnam, he said, expressing hope that through the dialogue, there will be more enterprises from Japan to invest in the Southeast Asian country in the coming time.

In the first half of this year, two-way trade reached 16 billion USD, of which Vietnam earned 7 billion USD from export to Japan, a year-on-year increase of 45 percent.

The two sides aim to increase their bilateral trade value to 40 billion USD by 2020.-VNA