This will be the first official visit to Vietnam by Naoto Kan as Prime Minister of Japan.
Thevisit is considered as an opportunity to boost economic cooperation intrade and investment, as well as strengthen coordination between the twocountries in regional and international issues of mutual concerns, infurthering the Vietnam-Japan strategic partnership for peace andprosperity in Asia .
Japan and Vietnam set up diplomaticties on Sept. 21, 1973. Since then, relations between the two countrieshave been constantly boosted through numerous visits by their leadersand active cooperation in economics, culture-education, tourism andlabour.
In 2002, the two countries’ leaders agreed to buildrelations between Vietnam and Japan following the motto “Reliablepartnership and long-lasting stability”.
In October 2006, PrimeMinister Nguyen Tan Dung paid an official visit to Japan , opening up anew period for development in the two countries’ relations, “Towardstrategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia ”.
Duringthe State-level visit to Japan in November 2007, State PresidentNguyen Minh Triet and then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda signed a Jointstatement on deepening the Vietnam-Japan ties and a cooperation progammetowards strategic partnership.
During the official visit toJapan in April 2009, Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and thenPrime Minister Aso Taro agreed to issue the Joint Statement on theVietnam-Japan strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia .
Vietnam considers Japan as a leading economic partner. The twosides gave each other most-favoured nation tax rates from 1999.
Tradeturnover between the two countries has increased strongly and wasvalued at 9.93 billion USD in 2006, 13.76 billion USD in 2009 and 9.02billion USD in the first seven months of this year.
Japan ranksthird among 92 foreign investors in Vietnam with 1,259 projectshaving a registered capital of over 20.5 billion USD.
In June2008, the two sides started the implementation of the third phase of theVietnam-Japan Joint Initiative to improve the investment environmentand raise Vietnam ’s competitive capacity, as well as boost thedevelopment triangle and the East-West corridor.
On Oct. 1, 2009,the Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA) took effect,joining the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Partnership Agreement to create alegal basis for economic and trade development between the twocountries.
Moreover, Japan has been the largest donor ofOfficial Development Assistance (ODA) to Vietnam and has pledged tomaintain ODA at high levels.
In the 2009 fiscal year, Japanprovided 145.6 billion JPY in ODA to Vietnam , the highest level sofar, which included 47 billion JPY as emergency aid for economicstimulus. The country also pledged to continue to cooperate withVietnam to carry out large infrastructure projects.
Japan isalso one of the largest providers of grant aid to Vietnam ’seducation sector. The two countries have signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding on Japan ’s help to Vietnam in training 1,000 Doctorsof Philosophy by 2020.
Japan will invite 2,000 Vietnamesehigh-school students to Japan to participate in various programmesduring the next five years./.