Vietnam
aims to attract more small-and medium-sized enterprises from Japan to invest in
the country, a seminar has heard.
This was highlighted by Director Do Nhat Hoang
of the Foreign Investment Agency at the seminar on attracting Japanese firms
into local industrial parks held by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in
Hanoi on Monday.
There are currently 283 industrial parks in 58
provinces and cities nationwide, Hoang said, but up to 35 per cent of the space
remains unoccupied.
“We want to get connected to the overseas
investment strategy of Japan to fill up these industrial parks,” he said.
Minister Hideo Suzuki at the Japanese embassy
in Vietnam said his government had developed a new development strategy,
including promoting outbound investment, especially to Asian countries.
To deploy such a strategy, Japan has developed
a supporting program for enterprises investing abroad to overcome the current
economic stagnation in Japan.
Hideo Ohkubo, chairman of the global promotion
committee for small and medium enterprises of the Tokyo Business Association,
said the aging situation in Japan had narrowed down the domestic market.
Besides, Japan is coping with stagnant
exporting industries due to continuous appreciation of the yen, the sharp
decline in international competitiveness of Japan against the rise of other
Asian countries and the consequences of the earthquake and tsunami last year.
However, whether Japanese firms will choose to
invest in Vietnam in response to their government’s strategy remains a
question.
Ohkubo estimated up to 97.3 per cent of the
220,000 small and medium enterprises in the manufacturing industry did their
businesses at home.
Most of the Japanese investors overseas are
large groups and corporations, while small and medium firms haven’t got used to
investing abroad, he said.
Japanese businesses consider Vietnam a more
attractive destination for production expansion than India and Thailand, and
the third appealing destination in terms of consumption market after India and
Indonesia.
“Still, most Japanese small and medium-sized
enterprises are hesitant to invest in Vietnam,” said Ohkubo.
Yoshifumi Tsujio, an expert at the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said Japanese firms would make
investment decisions more easily when Vietnamese industrial parks have
completed infrastructure.
Besides, Japanese enterprises seek sufficient
services, local staffs that comprehend the Japanese language and culture, and
Japanese employees who are willing to reside in industrial parks.
Ohkubo said India, Indonesia and Thailand had
developed industrial zones that satisfy the working and living demands of
Japanese investors.
Even the lately opened Myanmar has accepted
Japan’s consultancy to buil Japanese-style industrial parks to attract Japanese
investors.
He recommended Vietnam to turn industrial
parks to small cities to attract FDI capital of small and medium Japanese
enterprises.
Japan is the 4th biggest foreign investor in
Vietnam with over 1,600 projects worth $23.6 billion, according to the Ministry
of Planning and Investment.
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