Vietnam-Japan Relations: News

[Battle of Bach Dang River]

This is a thread to discuss all cooperations of economic-trade, security-military, diplomacy, culture... between Japan and Vietnam
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Viet Nam, Japan strengthen economic, investment ties
Updated August, 16 2012 09:49:00

HA NOI — Viet Nam will continue working with Japan to deepen bilateral cooperation in all areas, specifically economics, trade, investment and development aid.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made the affirmation while receiving visiting Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yukio Edano in Ha Noi yesterday.
At the reception, the PM spoke highly of the outcome of talks between Yukio Edano and the Vietnamese ministers of Industry and Trade, and Planning and Investment.
Dung suggested Japan create conditions for Vietnamese goods to penetrate into its market, help Viet Nam develop industries, particularly support industries, and increase development aid for Viet Nam's infrastructure sector.
He also said that Japan should speed up the implementation of major projects already agreed by the two sides, including the building of the Ninh Thuan 2 nuclear power plant and the development of the rare earth industry in Viet Nam.
The PM affirmed that the Vietnamese Government will provide favourable conditions for Japanese businesses to increase investment in Viet Nam as well as cooperation through the public-private partnership (PPP).
For his part, Minister Yukio Edano said that relations between the two countries had developed positively in various aspects, bringing about practical benefits to both sides.
During his visit, he said the two sides had agreed to enhance cooperation, mentioning Japan's support in accelerating Viet Nam's industrialisation process.
The Japanese minister affirmed that Japan will work to facilitate the export of Vietnamese goods to its market, team up with Viet Nam in developing support industries and effectively implement major projects agreed by the two countries' high-ranking leaders.
The same day, Edano attended a public-private policy dialogue between Viet Nam and Japan in Ha Noi, which, economic experts said, not only helped Viet Nam perfect its policy framework but also assists Japanese investors in implementing their projects more effectively in Viet Nam.
According to Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh, international donors have continuously assisted Viet Nam in building a public-private policy framework in accordance with international practices and the country's situation.
Among those, Japan, which boasts a great deal of experience in implementing PPP, is considered Viet Nam's leading partner, he stressed.
Edano said that Japan is ready to cooperate with Viet Nam in the areas of infrastructure, airport and road construction and electricity production to contribute to the Southeast Asian country's industrialisation process. — VNS

Viet Nam, Japan strengthen economic, investment ties - Politics & Laws - VietNam News

 

[Battle of Bach Dang River]

Vietnam to get help in creating redress plan for any nuclear accident

HANOI, Vietnam — Japan and Vietnam have signed a memorandum of understanding to help Hanoi to improve its redress system for future damages arising from nuclear accidents.

Under the accord inked Tuesday by visiting industry minister Yukio Edano and Vietnamese Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Quan in Hanoi, Japan will offer assistance based on its experience of the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Vietnam plans to start up a nuclear plant in Ninh Thuan Province in 2020, but its current system for compensating locals over nuclear-related damages is considered insufficient. The two countries will set up a joint committee to overhaul the process.

First phase construction work on the power station will be undertaken by Russia, with Japan overseeing the project's second phase.

Edano held a separate meeting with Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Minh Quang earlier in the day to discuss a joint rare earth development program.

The two sides also agreed to speed up environment assessment work and procedures to grant drilling rights to the Dong Pao mine in northern Vietnam. The project is expected to start producing rare earth minerals in the second half of 2013.

The joint program was agreed at a meeting between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Tan Dung, last October.

Vietnam to get help in creating redress plan for any nuclear accident | The Japan Times Online

 

[Battle of Bach Dang River]

Vietnam affirms priority to cooperate with Japan, Laos
News Desk

Publication Date : 18-08-2012
Vietnam regarded maintaining friendly relations and cooperation with Japan as one of the country's priority foreign policies, said President Truong Tan Sang.

At a reception to welcome Japan's Prince Akishino to Hanoi yesterday, Sang said that he was delighted at the rapid and strong development of ties between both countries, especially after their leaders agreed to lift relations to a strategic partnership in 2009.

Vietnam affirms priority to cooperate with Japan, Laos

 

[Viet]

Japanese demand some TLC when it comes to big projects
Ninh Kieu | vir.com.vn | Aug 20, 2012 08:06 am

Japanese investors last week demanded bigger Vietnamese government support for implementing eight large foreign direct investment projects in Vietnam.

Japanese firms have already rolled out some of the biggest investment projects in Vietnam

The call was made in the Vietnam-Japan Ministerial Public-Private Policy Dialogue between Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) in Hanoi last week.

Those projects include a National Satellite Centre and Earth Observation Satellites developed by NEC Corporation, Long Thanh International Airport proposed by Mitsubishi Corporation, Phap Van-Cau Gie expressway tabled by Nexco-Central, Industrial Waste Power Generation System by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation, integrated steelworks invested by JFE Steel Corporation, iron nugget manufacturing project invested by Kobe Steel. The last two ones are cosmetic production factory of Shiseido and spare parts manufacturing factory of Mitsubishi Regional Jet.

At the meeting, the Japanese investors raised their concerns over infrastructure development, site clearance issues, risk sharing with the government, currency exchange and labour training.

Kyohei Takahashi, co-chairman of Vietnam-Japan Economic Committee, said the slow pace in investment improvements in Vietnam had spooked many investors.

Regarding the Long Thanh international airport, a representative of Mitsubishi Corporation, said Japanese investors were interested in this project but concerned about the project’s slow pace of site clearance.

“Adequate risk sharing between public and private sectors and governmental guarantee undertaking such as foreign currency conversion guarantee and exclusive-rights guarantee is essentially required to secure private finance,” he said.

Meanwhile, JFE Steel Corporation wants the government to ensure that it has the permission for building a factory with total capacity of 7.5 million tonnes by 2020. Furthermore, it proposed the government issue a policy protecting local steel makers from imported steel.

Kobe Steel expects it would take a major role to steer the Thach Khe iron mine in Ha Tinh province.

Yukio Edano, Japan’s Minister of Economic, Trade and Industry, said the success of those projects were largely dependent on Vietnamese government support.

“We expect these projects will receive strong support from Vietnam government by efforts in site clearance, changing policy, government guarantee and labour training,” said Edano.

Japan is the largest investing country in Vietnam with total investment capital of $28.1 billion. To enhance investment cooperation, the two countries signed a Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative Action Programme to remove obstacles for Japanese investors in Vietnam.

Vietnam Investment Review - Top News - Japanese demand some TLC when it comes to big projects

 

[Viet]

Idemitsu in final talks on Vietnam refinery project
09/08/2012 07:38 am

Japan's third-biggest oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan is in the last stages of talks on a final investment decision to build a $5.8 billion refinery in Vietnam, a company official said on Tuesday.


Funding for the 200,000 barrels per day Nghi Son refinery project has largely been lined up, four years after it was initially announced, Shunichi Kito, Idemitsu's executive officer in charge of accounting, told reporters.

"We are in final stages (of talks), there is no big problem with Vietnam, and the talks are not at a deadlock," Kito said, adding that Idemitsu would like to make a decision on the investment as soon as possible. He did not give an exact date.

When completed, the Nghi Son refinery would be Vietnam's second. Japanese oil refiners are looking abroad for expansion opportunities as oil demand declines at home due to an ageing population and an accelerated shift to more environment-friendly energy sources such as gas.

Kuwait Petroleum International and Japan's Idemitsu Kosan Co each have a 35.1 percent stake in the project; Petrovietnam has a 25.1 percent stake and Mitsui Chemicals Inc holds the remaining 4.7 percent stake.

Japan's JX Nippon Oil and Energy, a unit of JX Holdings , has been also considering teaming up with Petrovietnam for the expansion plan of Vietnam's Dung Quat oil refinery.

http://www.uni-bros.com/en/news.php...ks_on_vietnam_refinery_project/id=22363/cid=1

 

[Viet]

Japan leads foreign investment in Binh Duong
first published Updated May, 14 2012 10:45:01 | Vietnam News

BINH DUONG — The southern province of Binh Duong has bucked the economic downturn as well as shrinking foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the country by already reaching its annual FDI target for 2012.

In only the first four months of the year, the province surpassed its target of US$1 billion, attracting FDI projects worth US$1.462 billion, mainly from Japanese investors.

The province's achievement compares to the total of $4.267 billion that the country as a whole has attracted in the first four months.

Binh Duong is followed by HCM City and Hai Phong as leading FDI achievers in the country so far this year.

The property sector has attracted most of the FDI inflow into the province. Early this year, among the largest Japanese-invested projects registered in the province were the Tokyu Binh Duong Urban Area Project worth $1.2 billion, a tyre manufacturing plant worth $575 million, a $300 million yarn production plant and a $180 million shipbuilding factory financed by Oshima Shipbuilding Viet Nam.

The province's leaders yesterday granted an investment licence to another Japanese investor, Dai Nippon Printing, which will develop a $35-million factory producing laminate film and printing and packaging materials on a 3ha plot in My Phuoc 3 Industrial Park.

The factory is scheduled to begin operations by April 2013, providing packaging materials for domestic use and export to Asian and African countries. The factory plans to get an annual turnover of 5 billion Yen ($62.6 million) five years after inauguration.

Futoshi Hario, general manager of Dai Nippon Printing Company, said the company had decided to build its second overseas factory in Viet Nam because of increasing demand for the products in the country.

Recently, they have been importing their products to Viet Nam from their factory in Jakarta, Indonesia. The company chose My Phuoc 3 Industrial Park to invest in because it had well-developed infrastructure, Futoshi said.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Japan has emerged as the largest FDI provider for Viet Nam this year, with investments of $2.36 billion in the first four months, accounting for 70 per cent of the total FDI inflow.

Le Thanh Cung, chairman of the Binh Duong People's Committee, said that the province had received 167 projects from Japanese investors with the total investment capital of $3.114 billion. The number of Japanese investors was the biggest compared with other countries and territories in the province.

"I believe that there will be more and more Japanese investors choosing to operate their business here. The province promises to continue investing in developing infrastructure to create the most favourable conditions for foreign investors," Cung said. He said Binh Duong remained the leader in attracting FDI because it had been effective in carrying out administrative reforms, improving quality of human resources and developing its infrastructure. — VNS

Japan leads foreign investment in Binh Duong - Economy - VietNam News

 

[Viet]

Japanese companies invest in Vietnam
By Ben Bland in Hanoi | February 9, 2012 1:28 pm FT.com

Izakaya Yancha | Address: 121 Trieu Viet Vuong Str, Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi

Japanese companies are flocking to Vietnam in record numbers seeking cheap labour and growth markets and business is booming for the Hanoi branch of Izakaya Yancha, a Japanese restaurant chain.

“Many Japanese men in their 40s like to hang out here with their Vietnamese girlfriends after going to karaoke,” says Shinya Nakao, the restaurant’s manager. “We expect more Japanese companies to move to Vietnam, so we’re planning to open a second branch this year and maybe some more after that.”

It may be bad news for these executives’ wives and children, who are increasingly being left at home as companies cut back once-generous expatriate packages. But the rising tide of Japanese investment is welcome in Vietnam, where several years of macroeconomic instability have dented confidence among investors. A record 208 Japanese companies set up in Vietnam last year, pledging to invest just over $1.8bn, according to Jetro, the Japanese trade promotion body. In 2010, 114 Japanese companies came to Vietnam, vowing to invest $2bn.

While Japan still ranks behind Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore in terms of registered foreign investment capital in Vietnam, Japan is leading the way in terms of implemented investments, says Hirokazu Yamaoka, Jetro’s chief representative in Vietnam.

The latest wave of investment, which has been propelled by the strong yen, is part of a broad push into emerging markets backed by the Japanese government, which is concerned about low growth and an ageing population at home. Tony Foster, managing partner of the Vietnam office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the law firm, says Japanese companies have been “jolted into action” since the earthquake that struck the east of the country in March.

“Japanese companies are realising that they’re not going to survive just in Japan,” says Mr Foster, who advised Mizuho, the banking group, last year on its $567m acquisition of a 15 per cent stake in Vietcombank, one of Vietnam’s biggest state-controlled institutions. “The Japanese government is also supporting diversification into Vietnam for geopolitical reasons.”

Export-focused manufacturers such Bridgestone, the world’s biggest tyre maker, and Panasonic, the electronics group, are setting up factories in Vietnam to take advantage of cheap wages. Unskilled workers in Vietnam are typically paid a half to a third of the $300 a month their counterparts might receive in the manufacturing clusters of southern China.

Companies such as Sapporo, the brewer, Mizuho, and Unicharm, which makes female hygiene products, are attracted by rapid domestic growth in Vietnam, which has one of the fastest-expanding middle classes in Asia, according to the Asian Development Bank.

“Until recently, many Japanese manufacturers were looking to China, but it is more and more difficult because the currency is strong and wage costs are rising rapidly,” says Mr Yamaoka. “There are also political issues between Japan and China.” A senior executive from a Japanese trading house with a presence in Vietnam says Japanese companies like the political stability of one-party, Communist-ruled Vietnam, which comes free of the historical animosity and present-day rivalry that looms over China-Japan relations.

However, wages and social tensions are also rising in Vietnam, which suffered a record number of labour strikes last year, as average annual inflation exceeded 18 per cent, the highest rate in Asia. But companies such as Tamron, which makes lenses for the world’s leading camera brands, are not deterred by this economic instability.

“Vietnam is very friendly for Japanese investors and the wage levels are acceptable,” says Shoji Kono, a corporate vice-president at Tamron, which plans to build a Y1bn ($13m) factory near Hanoi that will eventually employ 2,000 people.

Tamron set up its first overseas factory in Foshan, in the industrial heartland of China’s Pearl River Delta. It is one of many global manufacturers, not just Japanese, that want to diversify their production away from China to cut costs and reduce their dependence on one manufacturing base – a risk exposed last year by the floods in central Thailand and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Western diplomats say Japanese companies investing in Vietnam benefit from high-level political backing. Japan is one of Vietnam’s largest aid donors and political and security ties between the two countries are growing as both look anxiously over their shoulder at an ever more assertive China.

Japan provided Vietnam with Y100bn of official development assistance in 2010, about a third of the total it provided to the whole of south-east Asia. Much of Japan’s aid is focused on infrastructure and Tokyo is not shy about directing its cash toward projects that directly benefit Japanese companies, such as the large, new Lach Huyen port in Haiphong, northern Vietnam.

While there are many opportunities, conditions in Vietnam are far from ideal for foreign investors. In addition to widespread corruption, red tape and high inflation, the country’s infrastructure is still underdeveloped.

Tamron, along with many manufacturers, will be installing generators to protect against possible power cuts. But, says the executive from the Japanese trading house, Japanese companies – and their shareholders and boards – are more willing than their western counterparts to adapt to tough conditions in developing countries and play the long game.

“Japanese companies have a more long-term view,” he says. “We accept the situation, consider the best way forward, and don’t complain to anybody.”

 

[Viet]

Exports to Japan up 45 percent
Thứ tư, 29 Tháng 8 2012 03:45

Vietnam's exports to Japan in the first half of this year reached around US$7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 45 percent.

The figure was announced at a seminar in Tokyo on August 28, organized by the Trade Office of the Vietnamese embassy in Japan, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Japan-ASEAN Centre.

Trade Counselor to Japan Nguyen Trung Dung said in the nearly 40 years after they established diplomatic ties, Japan has become an important partner of Vietnam in many fields, including politics, economics, trade, investment and tourism.

In 2009, both countries raised their relationship to a strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia. Japan is Vietnam's third largest trade partner and second largest export market, said Dung.

Two-way trade in 2011 hit more than US$21 billion, including nearly US$11 billion from Vietnamese exports, a rise of 39 percent compared to the previous year.

Dung added that Vietnam and Japan have also signed many agreements, creating a legal framework for promoting bilateral cooperation in economics, trade, investment, and tourism.

The seminar provided an opportunity for localities and businesses from both countries to meet, exchange information and seek cooperative opportunities.

Masaaki Okano, a representative from the Asia New Power Company, emphasized that Vietnam and Japan share many cultural similarities and there is great potential for cooperation. However, there are not many Vietnamese products in the Japanese market so businesses from both sides should strengthen cooperation and boost trade promotion.

He said that Japanese businesses should clarify their specific requirements, while Vietnamese businesses should research the Japanese market, especially quality and design standards, as well as legal regulations.
Exports to Japan up 45 percent

 

[Battle of Bach Dang River]

Published On: Wed, Sep 26th, 2012
More Japanese Firms Eye Investment In Vietnam

Representatives of nearly 30 enterprises from Chubu region in Central Japan arrived in HCMC on Monday to begin a fact-finding trip in Vietnam, seeking investment opportunities in the fields of industry, commerce, finance and banking and real estate.

Speaking at the meeting with HCMC vice chairman Le Manh Ha on Monday, Mita Toshio, chairman of Chubu Economic Federation, or Chukeiren, said this trip is a step forward after a memorandum of understanding on cooperation signed with the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment last year.

Chubu is the venue of many large industrial groups of Japan such as Toyota Motor Corporation, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The region reports annual export revenue of US$850 billion, or one-fourth of Japan’s export earnings. Therefore, the trip is expected to open business opportunities for both countries, Toshio said.

HCMC vice chairman Ha expected that Japanese enterprises in 2015 would double investment capital in the city compared to the current level of US$2.4 billion. “We also have plans to establish industrial zones for Japanese firms only,” Ha said.

Chubu has a strong point in automobile, motorbike and electronics. The Chubu Economic Federation now has 750 member enterprises.

More Japanese firms eye investment in Vietnam | Vietnam Business News\

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Japanese business leader meets Vietnam's President

Japanese companies are looking for new production bases in South East Asia. A business leader from Japan has asked Vietnam's president to help more Japanese firms enter the country.

Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tadashi Okamura made the request in Hanoi, when he met Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang.

Okamura sought the cooperation of the Vietnamese government to improve the country's business environment for Japanese investment.

He said Japanese firms with advanced technology can contribute to the Vietnamese economy.

Sang expressed his intention to fully support the Japanese proposal and gave his assurances that Vietnam is politically stable.

Business group officials say some Japanese firms in China are considering switching their investments to Vietnam after they witnessed the recent anti-Japan demonstrations in China.

Okamura's business mission is scheduled to visit Myanmar on Wednesday.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120925_14.html

 

[Viet]

I think, it is now a perfect time for us to convince and encourage the Japanese for more investments.