Japanese firms wish to expand operations in Vietnam: Japan Business Federation

Japanese businesses hope to continue expanding in Vietnam and contributing to Japan-Vietnam economic cooperation in many fields, said Masayoshi Fujimoto and Masayuki Hyodo, co-chairmen of the Japan-Vietnam Economic Committee of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren).

At a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Hanoi on Thursday, they said Japanese enterprises are willing to contribute to the development of supporting industries, digital transformation, and high quality human resources training in Vietnam, as well as building global supply chains.

Lauding Vietnam as one of its most important partners, the co-chairmen cited a survey by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) indicating that Vietnam ranks second among the most attractive destinations for Japanese investors in both medium and long terms.

“Keidanren and Japanese enterprises pledge to support Vietnam's green transition and acceleration of projects aligning with the Political Declaration establishing the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) and Japan's Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) initiative,” they said.

Joining the Japanese business delegation were JBIC, Japanese Airlines, Sojitz, Anna Holdings, Ad-Sol Nissin, Mitsubishi, IHI, among others.

For his part, PM Chinh stated Vietnam always treasures ties with Japan and its investors. He also highlighted Japan as an important economic partner, biggest partner in official development assistance (ODA), second largest in labor cooperation, third largest in investment, and fourth largest in trade.

The leader praised the successful implementation of the Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative over the past two decades and welcomed the continuation of the joint initiative in the new era, focusing on promoting Asia Zero Emission Community/Green Transformation (AZEC/GX), innovation and digital transformation, supply chains, including developing supporting industries; quality human resources development, and mechanism reform to improve the business environment.

The PM suggested Keidanren and Japanese firms continue strengthening economic connectivity between the two countries, and expand cooperation in investment, especially in priority areas outlined in the Vietnam-Japan Joint Statement on the upgrade of the Vietnam-Japan relations to a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World".

They were asked to assist Vietnam in strategic infrastructure, energy, supporting industries, hi-quality agriculture, sci-tech, green and digital transformation, environmental protection, climate change response, semiconductors, human resource training, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and labor cooperation; and offer suggestions regarding policies, administrative reform, and improvement of the business environment in Vietnam.

Keidanren is Japan's largest economic federation, gathering 1,340 largest enterprises, 109 national industrial associations, and 47 regional and local economic organizations. Among those are Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Toyota, and Toshiba.

The Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative was initiated in April 2003. Over 20 years, it has completed eight stages with 497 out of 594 works on schedule, contributing to increasing FDI capital from Japan into Vietnam by 20 times (from $4 billion to $75 billion).

On the basis of the Vietnam-Japan Joint Statement on the upgrade of the Vietnam-Japan relations to a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World", the two sides agreed to implement the first phase of Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative in the new era from March 2024 to October 2025.

Japan has provided Vietnam with nearly $30 billion in ODA and committed to invest $74.4 billion in the latter. Bilateral trade reached $45 billion in 2023.

There are over 520,000 Vietnamese nationals in Japan and some 22,000 Japanese national in Vietnam, according to government data.