HCM City (VNA) – Measures to buildsustainable partnerships with Japanese producers is the focus of a workshop organisedin Ho Chi Minh City on July 27 by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry inHo Chi Minh City (VCCI-HCM) and the Vietnam-Japan Human Resource CooperationCentre.

The event heard that Japan is stepping up investment and business activities inVietnam, creating more cooperation opportunities for local enterprises.

However, only a small number of Vietnamese enterprises are able to participatein the supply chain of Japanese enterprises.

According to Vo Tan Thanh, Director of VCCI-HCM, in 2017, Japan again became thelargest foreign investor in Vietnam with total investment capital of 9.11billion USD, accounting for over 25 percent of the total foreign directinvestment (FDI) inflow into Vietnam.
 
In the first six months of 2018, Japanese enterprises poured nearly 6.5 billionUSD into investment projects in Vietnam, making up nearly 32 percent of the totalFDI in the country.

Japan’s investment in Vietnam will continue to increase for the time to come,reflected by the number of Japanese firms interested in and wishing to expand theirinvestment and business in Vietnam each year.

Moreover, the prestige of Japanese enterprises has been confirmed through themany years of the Vietnam-Japan comprehensive strategic partnership, he said.

These factors have created more feasible and effective cooperationopportunities for Vietnamese businesses, Thanh noted.

Tsuyoshi Shimizu, from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, said that thereare over 1,600 Japanese enterprises operating in Vietnam, nearly 70 percent of whichsaid that they will expand their business in the next one to two years.

The main reason Japanese businesses want to increase their business in Vietnam comesfrom the forecast that the Vietnamese economy will grow positively, which willhelp increase their revenue and promote the growth of enterprises, he stressed.

Japanese firms are interested in fields with high growth potential such as trade,manufacturing of high-added value products, and production of consumer goods,said Shimizu.

Representatives from Japanese enterprises said they give priority to purchasingraw materials and components in Vietnam and using local workers because this isone of the most effective solutions to cutting costs and shortening deliverytimes, thus improving their competitiveness.

However, they can source only one third of materialsin Vietnam.

Experts underlined that Vietnam needs to have more enterprises which are ableto produce materials, components and machinery to meet the demand of Japanese partners.

Vietnamese enterprises should invest in producing items such steel, copper,aluminium, plastic materials, processing and shaping machines, punching andcasting machines, and electronic components.

Vietnamese firms were also advised to think about long-term strategies andvisions if they want to establish cooperation with Japanese peers as the latterare very cautious in setting up partnerships with new suppliers. However, if theyhave confidence in their partners, Japanese firms are likely to establish long-termcollaboration with and create favourable conditions for their partners todevelop. –VNA