The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Japanese – ASEAN centre hosted a seminar in Tokyo on August 28 to promote Vietnamese – Japanese trade.

Addressing the event, Nguyen Trung Dung, Commercial Counselor of the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan , said Japan is the third largest trading partner and the second largest importer of Vietnam . In the first half of this year, two-way trade hit over 12 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of 28 percent, of which, Vietnam ’s exports to Japan reached about 7 billion USD, up 45 percent from the same period of last year.

Notably, Japanese enterprises working in Vietnam contribute to over 50 percent of Vietnam ’s total exports to Japan.

Masaaki Okano, a representative from the Asia New Power company, said the Japanese enterprises should provide more specific requirements for their Vietnamese counterparts, who also need to study the Japanese market carefully, especially in quality requirements and laws, in order to successfully penetrate the market.

Deputy Director of the Binh Thuan provincial Department of Industry and Trade Ngo Minh Hung briefed the participants on local infrastructure, natural resources and abundant workforce, highlighting particular conditions to develop tourism and agriculture. He said the locality is speeding up administrative reforms and incentives to lure more domestic and foreign investors.

Huynh Cong Trung, Vice Director of the Saigon Trading Group (SATRA), said SATRA has established a representative office in Yokohama city to share information and promote economic, trade and investment ties with Japanese localities and businesses.-VNA