Prime Minister's visit to Japan: Investment deals worth $10 billion

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that at last year's investment promotion conference in Japan, many proposals from the business communities of the two countries were openly shared, including many ideas that were realized through specific business investment plans. "And we hope that today's session will have many new ideas, especially proposals that can soon turn those ideas into specific cooperation, investment and business plans."

Emphasizing that the relationship between the two countries is developing very well in many aspects such as diplomacy, economy, trade, investment, culture, education, the Prime Minister said that the senior leaders of the two countries have a strategic trust relationship, and regularly visit each other. “Besides those diplomatic contacts, we are also close friends, understand each other very well and are willing to actively support the partnership and cooperation between businesses of the two countries. We consider this a valuable asset between the two countries and it is also the asset of businesses because this will contribute to increasing the asset value of businesses of the two countries in the relationship of cooperation and mutual investment”.

For Vietnam, in terms of economy, Japan is the largest ODA provider to Vietnam, the second largest FDI investor with over 52 billion USD, and the fourth largest trade partner with over 33 billion USD. In 2017, Japan was the largest investor in Vietnam with a total registered capital of over 9 billion USD. In the first 8 months of 2018 alone, Japanese investors continued to lead with a total investment capital of up to 7 billion USD, accounting for 28.8% of the total investment capital in Vietnam.

"In my previous meeting with the Japanese business community, I emphasized that improving the business investment environment is one of the key tasks of the Vietnamese Government. International organizations have highly appreciated Vietnam's efforts, demonstrated through the continuous improvement of Vietnam's investment environment indexes," the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister cited the survey results of JETRO, saying that up to 70% of Japanese enterprises plan to expand their business in Vietnam in the near future. The main reason for expanding operations is that revenue is expected to continue to increase (88% of the enterprises assessed). The number of profitable enterprises accounts for over 65%, an increase of 2.3 percentage points compared to 2016. Vietnam is attractive with investment advantages in terms of market size, growth potential, stable socio-political situation, and low labor costs.

Five years ago, Vietnam approved Vietnam's industrialization strategy within the framework of Vietnam-Japan cooperation towards 2020, with a vision to 2030, prioritizing the development of 6 industries: Electronics, agricultural machinery, agricultural and aquatic product processing, shipbuilding, environment and energy saving, automobile and auto parts manufacturing. In the context of the 4.0 industrial revolution, Vietnam is gradually shifting its economic growth momentum to industries with high added value, using advanced technology and high-quality labor. Vietnam has advantages and development potential in many fields. The Vietnamese government wants Japanese enterprises to focus on investing in Vietnam in the fields of infrastructure development, clean energy, processing industry, electronics industry, manufacturing, supporting industry, high-tech agriculture, logistics, aviation, and others.luxury hotel…

Make big dreams come true

"You asked us what's new that Vietnam is promoting investment this time" - the Prime Minister expressed and shared some new points, which are also new investment opportunities. Vietnam is accelerating the equitization process of state-owned enterprises by selling shares of large enterprises in transportation, aviation, infrastructure, food, agriculture, telecommunications, trade, services, tourism, construction... The Prime Minister welcomed Japanese enterprises with strong financial potential, good management capacity, and international market network, which will become strategic partners of Vietnamese enterprises.

Vietnam encourages Japanese enterprises to invest in high-quality infrastructure, such as transportation, energy, telecommunications, and industrial park infrastructure in many flexible forms, in the context that the Japanese Government is promoting the High-Quality Infrastructure Program to the Mekong region.

Vietnam is developing small and medium enterprises, promoting startups, connecting the startup ecosystem with the region and the world, and encouraging foreign investors to invest in Vietnamese startups according to simple procedures for capital transfer and profit transfer abroad.

According to the Prime Minister, Japanese investors in Vietnam are considered one of the models of FDI investment in Vietnam in terms of patience, will, determination, discipline, honesty and efficiency in investment. Investment capital from Japanese enterprises is playing a leading role and increasing the competitiveness of FDI capital flows into Vietnam. Currently, many large Japanese corporations are present in Vietnam with prestigious, competitive, high-tech products, actively participating in export activities.

The Prime Minister believes that from today's Investment Promotion Conference, there will be many new ideas and proposals, especially proposals for solutions, recommendations and ways to turn those ideas into very specific investment plans, "turning our big dreams into reality".

The Prime Minister affirmed his commitment to Vietnam's investment environment continuing to improve and "please come to Vietnam so that both sides can develop sustainably and long-term".

In his opening remarks, JETRO Chairman Hiroyuki Ishige said that after the success of the Vietnam Investment Promotion Conference in Japan last year, Japanese investment capital into Vietnam increased to a record level. However, according to him, this is just the starting point. Through this conference, he hopes that the investment cooperation between the two countries will reach a new height. He expressed his hope that Vietnam will continue to improve its investment and business environment.

The representative of the Japanese Government, Mr. Horofumi Takinami, Deputy Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI), said that through the Vietnam - Japan joint initiative, the two sides achieved many positive results such as shortening the time to apply for a business visa, simplifying customs procedures... He hoped that Vietnam would soon complete domestic procedures on CPTPP and said that Japan would cooperate with universities in the Mekong region in training human resources.

At the conference, 19 documents including licenses and investment cooperation agreements were signed and exchanged. Accordingly, including the documents exchanged at the meeting between Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on October 8, 2018, the total value of licenses and investment cooperation agreements reached during the Prime Minister's visit was approximately 10 billion USD.