Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung called on Japanese enterprises to invest in Nghe An.

On the afternoon of November 25, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinated with the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and Japanese agencies and organizations to organize"Meet Japan 2020" Conference.

Attending the Conference, on the Vietnamese side were Mr. Bui Thanh Son - Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Nguyen Minh Vu - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Do Nhat Hoang - Director of the Foreign Investment Agency, Ministry of Planning and Investment... On the Japanese side, there were Mr. YAMADA Takio - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Vietnam, the Embassy of Japan, Japanese organizations and businesses. The delegation of Nghe An province included comrades: Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Le Ngoc Hoa - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and leaders of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Management Board of the Southeast Economic Zone, the Center for Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion. Photo: baoquocte.vn

ECONOMIC, TRADE AND INVESTMENT COOPERATION IS A BRIGHT SPOTLIGHT

The conference aims to connect localities nationwide with Japanese partners, creating conditions and opportunities for localities to promote their potentials, strengths and establish relationships with Japanese representative agencies, Japanese localities, organizations, associations, and other organizations.Japanese companiesin Vietnam as well as in Japan.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son emphasized that the Vietnam-Japan extensive strategic partnership is developing very well in all areas, with political trust increasingly consolidated. Vietnam and Japan have actively shared, supported and assisted each other in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

In recent times, economic, trade and investment cooperation has been a bright spot in bilateral cooperation. Japan is Vietnam's leading economic partner as the largest provider of ODA loans with a total cumulative ODA capital of about 31 billion USD; the second largest investor with a total cumulative investment capital of more than 60.2 billion USD up to August 2020 with more than 4,500 valid projects.

Japan is also Vietnam's fourth largest trading partner with two-way trade turnover in 2019 reaching nearly 40 billion USD; and is Vietnam's third largest tourism partner with a total number of mutual visitors in 2019 reaching more than 1.4 million.

Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son delivered the opening speech at the "Meet Japan 2020" Conference. Photo: baoquocte.vn

At the meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Suga on October 19, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed that Vietnam will continue to create a transparent and favorable investment environment with conditions on land, people, environment, and policies to attract Japanese investment capital. This is an extremely favorable opportunity to promote local-level cooperation between the two countries.

In the context of the two countries' complementary economies, there is still a lot of room for cooperation and exchange between the two countries' localities, especially in the fields of trade, investment, agriculture, human resources, cultural exchange, people-to-people exchange and tourism.

Therefore, Permanent Deputy Minister Bui Thanh Son hopes that today's conference will be a good opportunity to help leaders of all Japanese representative agencies and the Japanese business community in Vietnam meet, exchange, learn, and promote potential cooperation areas with leaders and representatives from all provinces and cities of Vietnam.

GOOD COOPERATION

In the first working session of the conference, comradeNguyen Duc Trung - Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committeegave a keynote speech on the topic: “Practice of cooperation with Japanese partners JICA, JETRO of Nghe An province in recent times. Advantages, difficulties, proposals, recommendations".

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung emphasized that Nghe An always respects and appreciates partners from Japan and hopes to receive cooperation and investment from partners from Japan. Over the years, Nghe An has had a very good cooperative relationship with Japan.

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee spoke at the conference, calling on Japanese enterprises to invest in Nghe An. Photo: Vo Cuong

Regarding bilateral relations, Nghe An has established friendly and cooperative relations with Gifu province and Kasumigaura city (Irabaki province). Every year, the province organizes investment promotion events, seeks investment opportunities in Japan and contacts with representative offices of the Embassy, ​​the Japan External Trade Organization in Vietnam (JETRO); and the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Vietnam (JICA).

In particular, in 2019, with the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam and the Embassy of Japan, Nghe An successfully hosted the Conference "Meeting Japan - North Central Region" and the Conference "Meeting Nghe An - Japan". Nghe An also signed a 3-party cooperation commitment with the two organizations JETRO and JICA in a number of fields for the period 2019 - 2021 and the following years in the fields of agriculture and rural areas, investment promotion and human resource development and has achieved some results in many fields.

Regarding development cooperation, Japan is the largest ODA support partner for Nghe An. Up to now, the province has 44 projects using Japanese ODA capital with a total investment of over 5,000 billion VND. In particular, the project to upgrade and renovate the Northern Nghe An irrigation system is the largest infrastructure system for agricultural production in Nghe An to date.

Regarding labor and employment, there are currently about 21,000 Nghe An people working and living in Japan. These people will return to supplement the quality human resources for Nghe An in particular and the whole country in general.

Delegates attending the Opening Ceremony of the Conference "Meet Japan 2020". Photo: Vo Cuong

Regarding investment, Nghe An also receives strong support from the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). There are currently 10 Japanese FDI projects in the province with a total investment of about 113 million USD. Although the scale and number of projects are small, the effectiveness of these projects is very high. Particularly with Japanese partners, Nghe An highly appreciates the prestige, quality, efficiency and seriousness in implementing the projects.

NGHE AN IS READY TO WELCOME JAPANESE INVESTORS

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung said that Nghe An's cooperation with Japanese partners is still not commensurate with its potential, and investment results in recent times are still modest.

The Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee and the delegation worked with the Ambassador and Heads of Japanese agencies and organizations in Vietnam such as: JICA, JETRO, JASSO, JBIC, JINTO, JCCI, JCCH and Japanese enterprises. Photo: Vo Cuong

Summarizing the potential of Nghe An, the head of the Provincial People's Committee said that Nghe An is the locality with the largest area in the country, the 4th largest population in the country, and is the development connection center of the North Central region. The province also has full means of transportation and abundant, high-quality human resources. In particular, Nghe An is making efforts and determined to improve the investment and business environment to attract investment with the spirit of accompanying investors to help investors conveniently implement projects in the province.

In addition, the province has the Southeast Economic Zone planned on an area of ​​over 20,000 hectares, including 10 industrial parks with over 4,500 hectares with relatively synchronous infrastructure investment, ready to welcome investors.

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee presented a gift to Mr. YAMADA Takio - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Vietnam. Photo: Vo Cuong

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung affirmed that Nghe An wishes to welcome investment from partners from Japan and continue to receive attention and support from the Embassy of Japan and JETRO to help Nghe An promote information about its potential and strengths. Through that, it will continue to support attracting investment into economic zones and industrial parks from Japanese enterprises in the fields of climate change, natural disaster prevention, agriculture and rural development, foreign language training, and human resources for Nghe An.

“Nghe An believes that with the efforts and determination of the Nghe An government, in the coming time it will be able to attract many investment projects, including projects from Japanese partners,” said Mr. Nguyen Duc Trung - Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghe An province.

The Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee and the delegation worked with the Ambassador and Heads of Japanese agencies and organizations in Vietnam such as: JICA, JETRO, JASSO, JBIC, JINTO, JCCI, JCCH and Japanese enterprises. Photo: Vo Cuong

On the sidelines of the conference, the Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee and the delegation worked with the Ambassador and Heads of Japanese agencies and organizations in Vietnam such as: JICA, JETRO, JASSO, JBIC, JINTO, JCCI, JCCH and Japanese enterprises.

Affirming the important contributions of the Embassy, ​​organizations and businesses of Japan to the socio-economic development of Nghe An province in recent times, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee hoped that the Japanese partners would increase investment and support for Nghe An province in the coming time, bringing the traditional cooperation between the two sides to a new level, more substantial and effective.

Infrastructure in WHA Industrial Park has been fully and synchronously invested. Photo courtesy

At the working session, the Ambassador and Japanese partners highly appreciated the cooperation results between the two sides, and at the same time wished to further promote cooperation activities in areas of mutual interest and strength such as agriculture and rural development, human resource training, and organizing investment, trade and tourism promotion activities.