Nhat Tan Bridge - a symbol of the Vietnam-Japan friendship (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc isleading a high-level delegation of Vietnam to attend the 10th Mekong-JapanSummit in Tokyo and visit Japan from October 8-10. The trip is hoped to helplift bilateral trade to 60 billion USD in 2020.
Over the past years, Viet Nam-Japan trade relations have grown rapidly, andJapan has always been among the top four trade partners among more than 200countries and territories exporting to and importing goods from Vietnam.
The number of Japanese companies investing in Vietnam has been on the rise alongwith their investment scale. Economic ties between the two countries areopening more cooperation opportunities in many areas.
After 45 years of establishing diplomatic relations, Vietnam and Japan havebecome increasingly important partners of each other in many fields. Since thetwo countries upgraded the bilateral relationship to the level of Extensive StrategicPartnership for peace and prosperity in Asia in 2014, Vietnam-Japan ties hasdeveloped strongly, comprehensively and practically.
Statistics from the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, asof early October 2018, Vietnam’s total export value to Japan reached 13.82billion USD, up 12.2 percent over the same period of 2017.
Japan is also one of the four markets to which Vietnam's export turnover exceededthe 10 billion USD benchmark. Especially, Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of 141million USD in two-way trade with Japan so far this year.
Vietnam's export staples to Japan in the reviewed period weregarments and textiles (537 million USD); transport vehicles (365.2 million USD);machines and equipment (259 million USD). Remarkably, Vietnam’s main exports toJapan recorded a stable growth compared to the same period last year.
According to a survey by the Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO), up to 70 percent of asked Japanese enterprises want to invest inVietnam and 66.6 percent of Japanese enterprises operating in Vietnam plan toexpand their production and business activities.
As of April 2018, Japan had 3,693 valid FDI projects in Vietnam withtotal registered capital of over 49.8 billion USD, ranking second among 116countries and territories investing in Vietnam. This is a positive sign and a foundationto believe that the flow of of Japanese direct investment into Vietnam willcontinue to increase in the coming years.
Hoang Quang Phong, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber ofCommerce and Industry (VCCI), said that, to attract more Japanese investments,Vietnam needs to continue reforming its administrative procedures and improvingcompetitiveness of enterprises, increasing labour productivity, and maintainingcommitments among investors, and take full advantages of cooperation potentialin new fields such as agriculture and tourism, human resources training anddevelopment, transportation and distribution.
Together with the Japan-Vietnam Economic Partnership Agreement(VJEPA) and the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (AJCEP), along with the positiveeconomic outlook of Japan, Vietnam’s export of agricultural products, and seafoodare forecasted to see bright prospects in 2018.
According to the VJEPA, the average tariff imposed on Vietnamese exports toJapan will gradually decrease to 2.8 percent in 2018.
When the agreement takes effect, at least 86 percent of agricultural, forestryand aquatic products and 97 percent of industrial products of Vietnam exportedto Japan will be entitled to tax incentives.
In return, the average tariff levied on Japanese imports toVietnam will be reduced to 7 percent by 2018.
Over the last decade, under the agreement, Vietnam and Japan have basicallycompleted the tax reduction roadmap to build a complete bilateral free tradearea. Accordingly, 94.53 percent of Vietnamese exports turnover and 87.6percent of Japanese exports will be exempted from import taxes.
Vietnam and Japan need to promote economic cooperation byfostering cooperation in trade and investment, implementing effectively the VJEPA to realise the goal of 60 billion USD intwo-way trade in 2020, Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anhsaid.
During a meeting with Nishikawa Koya, Special Advisor to the Cabinet of Japan,Anh praised Japan as one of the first countries to ratify the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreementfor Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) as well as the country’s rolein leading and creating a driving force and strong influence on theratification of the trade deal in other countries.
He affirmed that bilateral relations between Vietnam and Japan have rapidlyimproved and developed strongly not only in economy and trade but also in otherfields.
In particular, when a series of new-generation free trade agreements have beensigned, they will create a thrust to spur trade flows among nations andstakeholders, he added.
Both sides should create favorable conditions for agricultural and aquaticproducts to enter each other’s market, he noted, adding that action plans ofsix selected industries in the Vietnam Industrialization Strategy within theframework of the Vietnam-Japan Cooperation towards 2020, vision 2030 should beimplemented.
Vietnamese enterprises should devise marketing strategies to promote exports tothe Japanese market, Anh said, noting that this is a prerequisite forsustainable export to the Japanese market and contributes to boosting bilateraltrade in the coming time.
Experts from the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Asia–Africa Market Department warned that Vietnameseenterprises need to improve their business capacity and monitor qualitystandards of export goods, along with actively working on trade promotion tofully tap the potential from the Japanese market and make full use ofadvantages brought by the trade agreements.-VNA
VNA
