Japan is expected to have two more rounds of subsidies to "exit China", affirming that it will continue to support businesses investing in Vietnam

Also attending were leaders of a number of ministries and branches of Vietnam, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Vietnam, Mr. Yamada Takio, Japanese economic organizations such as JCCI (Japanese Business Association in Vietnam), JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), 30 Japanese enterprises.

Speaking at the opening of the dialogue, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc highly appreciated the Government of Japan and Mr. Abe Shinzo's great contributions to the development of the extensive strategic partnership between the two countries in recent years. Vietnam-Japan relations have achieved many achievements, and the trust between the two countries has deepened.

In the context of the negative impact of COVID-19, the Prime Minister also welcomed and appreciated the Japanese Government for promptly making a decision to support the diversification of supply chains abroad and expressed his pleasure to know that among 30 Japanese enterprises receiving the first round of support from the Japanese Government, there are 15 businesses wishing to expand investment in Vietnam. This is also a joy and encouragement for Vietnam to confidently continue to improve the investment environment even better, creating conditions for businesses to succeed, including Japanese businesses.

With 100 million people, increasing incomes, being in the dynamic ASEAN bloc with nearly 650 million people, the Prime Minister emphasized that Vietnam's market is large enough for ambitious business investment plans, in line with restructuring strategies, shifting global and regional supply chains of international investors, especially Japan.

The Prime Minister has established a working group to promote foreign investment cooperation headed by a Deputy Prime Minister to seize opportunities for investment cooperation, dialogue and handling proposals of large investors to Vietnam.

"I have directed the reopening of commercial flights to a number of places with a high safety factor, including Japan, with a shortened and convenient entry process, while ensuring safety against the epidemic. and convenient for business," said the Prime Minister.

Vietnam has a great demand for development investment. The Prime Minister welcomed Japanese businesses to expand investment cooperation in infrastructure, energy, manufacturing industry, high-quality agriculture, information technology, smart cities, etc financial services, banking, innovation-based start-ups, as well as participating in strategic partnerships for the equitization of state-owned enterprises in Vietnam.

Japanese Ambassador Yamada Takio said that in the past 20 years, Vietnam's economy has grown extremely rapidly and also affirmed its position in the international arena. The relationship between Vietnam and Japan is becoming deeper and deeper, and especially the telephone conversation between the Prime Ministers of the two countries this month has demonstrated the close relationship of trust at a high level. This is an extremely valuable asset in the relationship between the two countries.

According to the Ambassador, the COVID-19 epidemic situation has not shown any signs of stopping. However, Vietnam has shown its superior risk management capabilities and has achieved certain results. While countries are still struggling to prevent and control the COVID-19 epidemic, Vietnam has soon recovered. Vietnam is directly enjoying the advantages of diversifying the global supply chain. "It can be said that investors in the world, including Japanese businesses, are paying a lot of attention to Vietnam, a place to invest in the new normal conditions after COVID-19," the Ambassador said.

According to a recent JETRO survey, many Japanese businesses said they are considering shifting their production facilities to Vietnam. "We expect that Vietnam will seize this opportunity and become a stronger country in the near future." The Ambassador spoke and raised a number of proposals such as: reopening travel between the two countries, improving the disbursement of current public investment projects, attracting more foreign investment into Vietnam, improve Vietnam's credit rating.

Regarding Japan's budget package of about $2.3 billion to promote the diversification of supply chains of Japanese businesses, the Ambassador said, having made the first choice, with 30 enterprises and of which, 15 enterprises are present here today, all of which are enterprises related to Vietnam.

"In the coming time, we also expect to select for the second and third times," the Ambassador said. Japan affirmed that it will continue to support businesses investing in Vietnam. "We continue to hope that the Vietnamese Government will have appropriate solutions to prevent and control the COVID-19 epidemic as well as to continue to support Vietnam in further economic development in the new normal conditions", the Ambassador expressed.

In order to further promote Japanese investment in Vietnam, the representative of JCCI proposed to create an investment incentive mechanism in accordance with the characteristics of Japan's manufacturing and manufacturing industry, build energy infrastructure in the PPP mode, etc allowing Japanese enterprises to contribute capital to Vietnamese state-owned enterprises.

For example, in Japan, in addition to core enterprises, there are also cooperative enterprises, which have a fairly complex and strong division of roles in a chain of production activities. Thus, attracting investment in the form of attracting the whole production chain is not only attracting core enterprises. From there, the investment of core Japanese enterprises in Vietnam will become easier.

JCCI hopes that the Government of Vietnam will consider further expanding the incentive mechanism for advanced technologies as well as enterprises expanding investment on a large scale, building a preferential mechanism for a production chain and not just for a business.

At the dialogue, Japanese businesses also raised many issues in investment cooperation in Vietnam such as human resources, development of a number of new fields, supporting industries, research and development, etc.

~Cafebiz~