President of the Vietnam-Japan Friendship Parliamentary Group Ho Duc Viet told three southern localities to improve administrative procedures, site clearance and capital disbursement to make a breakthrough in attracting Japan ’s FDI and ODA capital.

Viet, who is also Politburo member and Secretary of the Party Central Committee, made the statement at a working session with the authorities of Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong in HCM City on August 30.

He highlighted Japanese businesses’ capital and technology strength, fast implementation of their projects and good compliance with Vietnam ’s laws, thus making considerable contributions to local socio-economic development.

HCM City is the country’s leading locality in attracting Japan ’s FDI and ODA capital. By August 2010, the city had 398 Japanese-invested projects worth over 2 billion USD. There are four traffic and environment projects that are being carried out in the city using Japan ’s ODA. They include the East West Avenue project, the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien railway project and two water environment improvement projects.

Binh Duong now has 153 Japanese-invested projects totalling more than 1.2 billion USD and four ODA projects while Dong Nai has 90 projects worth more than 1.7 billion USD in total and one ODA project.

The three city and provinces are calling for Japan’s ODA capital for four infrastructure development projects in HCM City, two water environment improvement projects in Binh Duong province and three projects in Dong Nai./.