Tokyo (VNA) – General Secretary of the Communist Part of Vietnam Central Committee and President To Lam met with representatives of several Japanese corporations and businesses in Tokyo on November 11 as part of his ongoing official visit to Japan.
At a meeting with Hironori Kamezawa, President & Group CEO of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), the Vietnamese leader spoke highly of the group’s effective contributions to the development of Vietnam’s finance and banking sector. He expressed his hope that the Japanese group will continue expanding its operations and investing effectively, thereby helping promote economic cooperation between Vietnam and Japan.
Kamezawa said MUFG aims to become a comprehensive service provider, extending beyond traditional financial services. The group wishes to support capital mobilisation and strengthen business connectivity. MUFG currently has a partnership with VietinBank and hopes that Vietnamese ministries, agencies and sectors will continue creating favourable conditions for the two banks to make the most of their respective strengths in serving domestic and foreign businesses and contributing to Vietnam’s economic development, he said.
General Secretary and President Lam affirmed that Japan has always been an important partner in supporting Vietnam’s infrastructure development, not only through government funding and official development assistance (ODA), but also through the involvement of Japanese financial institutions and businesses. In this context, Vietnam hopes that MUFG will go beyond its role as a financial service provider to become a partner in mobilising resources for development and connecting capital and technology flows between the two countries.
Acknowledging MUFG’s achievements in Vietnam, the Party and State leader called for bilateral cooperation to enter a new phase, moving from financial services and business connectivity towards jointly mobilising long-term capital for national strategic infrastructure, channelling Japanese investment into high-tech industries and contributing to the development of Vietnam’s international financial centre.
Sharing MUFG’s view that there is considerable room to mobilise more private capital from both domestic and foreign sources, General Secretary and President Lam called on the group to work with Vietnam towards establishing a stable and reputable presence for the country in Japanese and international capital markets. Vietnam pledges to work alongside MUFG to support and facilitate effective and successful investment and business activities by foreign investors in the country, he affirmed.
During a meeting with Shingo Ueno, Representative Director, President and CEO of Sumitomo Corporation, General Secretary and President Lam spoke highly of the results of cooperation and welcomed the corporation’s commitment to creating long-term value and supporting Vietnam’s sustainable economic growth.
This is precisely what Vietnam expected from its strategic partners, not simply investment when conditions are favourable, but a long-term commitment to accompanying the country throughout every stage of its development.
Ueno said Sumitomo has accompanied Vietnam through many stages of its development. The corporation is currently involved in the North Hanoi Smart City project and the FujiMart supermarket chain, both in partnership with Vietnam’s BRG Group, as well as insurance-related business activities. More recently, it has invested in domestic technology companies, contributing to the development of Vietnam’s digital economy.
Speaking highly of Vietnam’s development priorities in the current context, Ueno affirmed Sumitomo’s commitment to contributing to the country’s sustainable growth and prosperity through industrial parks, infrastructure, sustainable urban development, retail, insurance-related businesses and digital transformation.
The Vietnamese leader stressed that each phase of Sumitomo’s cooperation with Vietnam has been aligned with a specific development need of the country, describing this as the right approach to be continued in the years ahead.
He suggested Vietnam and Sumitomo develop a longer-term cooperation programme centred on four pillars, namely industrial parks and infrastructure; sustainable urban development; energy transition; and digital transformation, alongside services that improve quality of life, such as retail and insurance.
He urged Sumitomo to soon identify specific projects, their scale and locations, and the necessary conditions for Vietnamese agencies to study and assess them. The two sides should agree on concrete projects and tasks, designated agencies responsible for implementation, and clear timelines, rather than limiting cooperation to broad orientations.
He affirmed that Sumitomo’s success in Vietnam will not only benefit the corporation itself but also contribute to the country's sustainable growth and prosperity and further deepen cooperation between the two countries.
Meeting with representatives of SoftBank Group Corp., General Secretary and President Lam praised the group’s transformation from a software distributor into a global investor in technology, telecommunications and AI. He noted that its investment decisions demonstrated long-term vision and an ability to identify breakthrough technology trends at an early stage.
Vietnam hopes SoftBank will become not merely an investor but a partner in developing the country’s AI infrastructure and technology ecosystem, thereby contributing to Vietnam-Japan cooperation, he said.
SoftBank representatives said the group’s current strategy focuses on four areas of AI models and applications, namely its strategic partnership with OpenAI and the development of enterprise AI and AI agents; semiconductor technology through ARM; AI infrastructure, including data centres, power infrastructure and computing capacity, notably the Stargate project; and physical AI and robotics.
SoftBank is interested in working with Vietnamese partners to explore opportunities in AI data centres and related digital infrastructure in Vietnam, including rapidly deployable power solutions, connectivity, technology cooperation, human resources development and innovation ecosystems serving Vietnam and regional markets.
Welcoming SoftBank’s existing ecosystem in Vietnam, the General Secretary and President said the cooperation potential between the two sides is far greater than its current scale, particularly in light of the group’s strategic focus on artificial superintelligence. He expressed his hope that SoftBank will expand beyond its information and communications technology (ICT) services presence to jointly research and develop AI and digital infrastructure in Vietnam for both domestic and regional markets.
He called on the group to study the development of large-scale AI data centres in Vietnam in a systematic manner, with the aim of building not just individual data centres but an integrated AI infrastructure ecosystem. This will require clear technology solutions, power supply plans and phased development scales, as well as connectivity solutions for AI infrastructure, technology cooperation and innovation ecosystem development. Human resources development should also be incorporated into cooperation plans from the outset.
Vietnam needs not only workers capable of operating these facilities but also engineers and experts able to design, operate and master data centre systems, AI infrastructure and related technologies, he stressed, reaffirming the country’s commitment to continuing administrative reforms, improving the investment and business environment, and safeguarding investors’ legitimate rights and interests./.
