Dong Thap rolls out red carpet to welcome Japanese investors: provincial leader

The Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap is offering incentives, streamlining administrative procedures, and improving transport infrastructure to welcome foreign investors, especially those from Japan, said chief of the provincial Party Committee Le Quoc Phong on Wednesday.

Dong Thap is a key province for agricultural production. In addition to rice and aquatic products, it boasts many famous fruit products that can be exported to Japan such as Cao Lanh mango and Chau Thanh longan, Phong told a trade and investment cooperation conference between Dong Thap province and Japanese businesses.

“Dong Thap is looking to lure cash flows into strong fields like agriculture," he affirmed.

Accordingly, the province will call for cooperation and investment in developing quality and diverse plant varieties and the processing industry, while promoting agricultural value chains, especially those with high technology in key industry groups such as rice mango, pangasius lotus and ornamental flowers.

Dong Thap is now home to 28 FDI projects with total investment capital of $314 million, many of which are from Japan.

Hiroshi Fukai, CEO of Thien Ha Kameda JSC, which has operated a $1.8 million rice cracker factory in Dong Thap for the past seven years, said his firm chose the province because of its proximity to the economic hubs of Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City. In addition, its rice quality is suitable for the production of Japanese rice crackers, he added.

“Besides rice supplies, Dong Thap also boasts an abundant well-trained labor force along with a convenient waterway system for transporting goods. The locality’s wholehearted policy support has helped us a lot during our operations," said Fukai.

Another Japanese enterprise specializing in the IT field, Something Corporation, is stepping up support for Dong Thap in digital data conversion and human resource training to improve export capacity.

Yanmar Co., Ltd., a large Japanese agricultural machinery corporation, is also preparing to invest in modern machinery systems in the agricultural industry, especially rice, in Dong Thap.

However, Fukai pointed out the province’s current limitations such as poor infrastructure and a lack of accommodation and catering services for foreigners.

According to Truong Hoa Chau, director of the provincial Department of Planning and Investment, Dong Thap is a pioneer in deploying digital agricultural data and traceability platforms; developing agriculture in an ecological, organic, circular, low carbon direction; and promoting comprehensive rural development associated with building new-style rural areas and “smart villages”, with synchronous infrastructure and social services.

"The province now produces 6.6 million tons of food and 30,000 tons of products made from rice per year. Its food export turnover in 2022 reached $201.76 million, with South Korea, Japan, the E.U. and the U.S. its main markets,” he said.

Chau noted that Dong Thap is calling for investment in building a wholesale center associated with raw material areas for freshwater aquatic products, fruits, and rice in freshwater ecological zones; high-tech agricultural projects and digital transformation in agriculture; projects investing in machinery and equipment to serve the mechanization of the region's agricultural sector and in processing and preserving agricultural products and by-products.

In addition to Something Corporation, with a project supporting the deployment of Oncho HoneyBee software to serve the digital transformation of the agricultural industry, Seed to Table, a Japanese non-government organization established in 2009, has carried out an organic agricultural development project in Dong Thap since May 2019.

The province is also applying Japan's high school agriculture education model, which aims to equip students with agricultural knowledge along with high school-level general education.

Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Phong said to facilitate the implementation of ongoing and upcoming projects, the locality is gradually upgrading many industrial parks and clusters such as Tan Kieu, Tan Lap, Truong Xuan and Quang Khanh.

In addition, the provincial border gate economic zone has been completed, ready to serve investment projects, while transport infrastructure has been perfected, he added. For example, the province is accelerating the progress of the An Huu-Cao Lanh Expressway. Once put into use, it will shorten the travel time from HCMC to Dong Thap to two hours.

The waterway system, with two wharves located on the banks of the Tien River, also helps transport goods conveniently to the East Sea and Cambodia, he noted. The East Sea is known internationally as the South China Sea.