In the 40 years since the establishment of official diplomatic ties, Vietnam and Japan have made great progress in all cooperation areas of politics, economics, culture, social and education. The governments have consistently nurtured so that the bilateral relations after each period have been promoted to a higher level of comprehensiveness and depth.
In the fields of development cooperation, Japan has been the largest ODA provider of Vietnam with approximately JPY2,118 billion (approx. US$24 billion), accounting for over 30 percent of total foreign aid commitments of Vietnam. In fiscal year 2011, even while facing the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, Japan pledged Vietnam aid worth US$2.8 billion and after that, US$2.2 billion in 2012. The Japanese ODA loans for Vietnam amount to about JPY200 billion a year.
As for direct investment, as of June 2013, Japan was the biggest investor of Vietnam with 1,990 valid projects worth a total of US$32.6 billion registered capital, allocated on localities such as Thanh Hoa, Binh Duong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong and Dong Nai. Over the past three years, the investment from Japan has been consistently growing. In 2012, Japan provided Vietnam the highest amount of ODA worth US$5.6 billion registered capital from 317 projects, and within the first 6 months of 2013, Japan has continued to add and raise investment to nearly US$4 billion.
Japanese ODA has been used in 18 prioritised sectors, namely processing, manufacturing, real estate, construction, retail and wholesale, information & communications, which are also the areas Vietnam has been trying to attract investment. Some Japanese projects: Project of Nghi Son Oil Refinery Co. Ltd in Thanh Hoa province invested by Japanese investors with a total registered investment capital of US$9 billion; Project of Tokyu Binh Duong Urban Township of Becamex Tokyu Co. Ltd with Tokyu Corp as investor, total registered capital of US$1.2 billion; Project of sponge iron Company Kobelco Vietnam Co. Ltd, total registered investment capital of US$1 billion. Vietnamese businesses also have 19 investment projects in Japan with a total registered capital of US$3.62 million.
In the fields of trade cooperation, Japan now is the 3rd largest trade partner of Vietnam with bilateral trade in 2012 amounted to US$24.7 billion. In which, Vietnam’s exports to Japan reached US$13.1 billion, with the agricultural, forestry and fishery products accounting for about 16 percent, brought back over US$2 billion. The main export products include seafood, coffee, rubber and vegetables.
In order to attract foreign investors in general and Japanese in particular, the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment recently collaborated with experts from JICA to develop Vietnam Industrialisation Strategy. This strategy is part of the Vietnam – Japan cooperation framework, which identifies six prioritised sectors including: (i) Electricity and Electronics (ii) Food Processing (iii) Agricultural Machinery (iv) Ship-building (v) Environment Industry and Energy Saving (vi) Auto industry and Auto-part production along with supporting industries.
This prioritisation will help to fully exploit the potential and advantages of the two countries, opening a new phase in attracting foreign direct investment through developing supporting industries, helping to increase added value for the Vietnamese products.
In addition to determining the direction for future cooperation, the Vietnam authorities are coordinating with JICA and Japanese authorities to research the establishment of two intensive industrial zones in Hai Phong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau in order to support Japanese businesses wishing to invest in Vietnam.
In the upcoming time, Vietnam is committed to continuing to build a fair, transparent and conducive business environment to attract foreign investment, make good use of bilateral and multilateral cooperation to provide attractive mechanisms drawing in foreign investors, including Japanese investors.
Following the positive results of the Phase Four of implementing Vietnam – Japan Joint Initiative, the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment is working with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI) and the Japanese Economic Union (Keidanren) to continue the Phase Five, in which the two sides focused on finding solutions to business investment in some areas such as retail, real estate, supporting industries in order to encourage FDI flows from Japanese enterprises into these fields.
In recent years, Vietnam’s economy has faced many difficulties creating negative impacts on business and investment environment. Fortunately, the attention of the two governments to economic cooperation in general and investment in particular has helped stimulate investment from Japanese companies, bringing the bilateral relations to a new level of substance, comprehensiveness and sustainability.
Nguyen Ba Cuong
Deputy Director General of Foreign Investment Agency, Ministry of Planning and Investment
Đăng ký: VietNam News
