Three Japanese firms, namely Sojitz Corp., Daiwa House Industry Co. and Kobe Steel Ltd., will jointly build a large industrial park in southern Vietnam , local media reported.

The 270-hectare industrial park will be built in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City, featuring a data centre, cloud computing services and cutting-edge sewage treatment facilities, the Japanese daily of Nikkei reported.

Work on the construction of the park is slated to begin in January, and factories set up there are expected to come onstream around the summer of 2013.

Sojitz will take a 57.3 percent stake in the company undertaking the project. Daiwa House will have a 22 percent stake, and Kobe Steel's subsidiary, the Kobelco Eco-Solutions Co., will get an 8.7 percent share. The rest will be locally owned. Investment is estimated to total about 100 million USD, or around 7.7 billion yen.

According to Nikkei, the strengthening of the yen is prompting Japanese companies to shift production abroad. Sojitz and its partners expect more and more companies to choose Vietnam over China , where labor costs are on the rise./.