So far this year, the municipal People’s Committeeand local enterprises have welcomed many delegations of senior officialsfrom Japan including head of Kansai region's Economy, Trade andIndustry Department, Toshinori Kobayashi; Minister of Agriculture,Forestry and Fisheries Koya Nishikawa; and Environment Minister YoshioMochizuki, who came to the city to explore business cooperationopportunities.
Japanese investors are currently operating 668projects with total registered capital of 25 billion USD, and thesefigures are predicted to grow in the coming time. According to a surveyconducted by the Japan External Trade Promotion Organisation (JETRO),most of surveyed Japanese enterprises said they would continue investingand expanding their businesses in Vietnam as a whole, and in HCMCity in particular.
Representatives of the Japanese companiesalso affirmed that in addition to expanding export markets, Japaneseenterprises will speed up investment in supporting industries (SI) withthe trend of shifting their investment flow from China to Vietnam .
In their recent market survey in HCM City ,representatives of Japan ’s Saitama Prefecture also proposed somepotential areas of bilateral cooperation such as cosmetics production,safe vegetables and electronics, in which Vietnam has a competitiveadvantage.
According to a cooperative agreement signed withEhime Prefecture , the Ho Chi Minh City Export Processing andIndustrial Zones Authority (Hepza) has arranged 300 hectares of land inLinh Trung Processing Zone and Hiep Phuoc Industrial Zone for businessesfrom Ehime Prefecture , while asking relevant agencies to boostadministrative procedure reform as a way to attract investments fromEhime’s companies.
The growing interest of Japanese investors inHCM City’s economy is definitely a positive sign for domesticenterprises operating in the locality, said a Hepza official, addingthat it is also a reflection of the city’s improved businessenvironment, opening up cooperative opportunities with one of theworld’s leading economies.-VNA