VietNamNet Bridge - Japan’s investment movement as part of its China+1 and Thailand+1 strategies is becoming a reality.

On July 31, Forval, together with Tin Nghia Corporation and Dong Nai Container Port JSC, announced establishment of JSC, a joint venture with investment capital of VND772 billion.

JSC will build infrastructure items and workshops to lease to Japanese small- and medium-sized enterprises in Nhon Trach 3 Industrial Zone, covering an area of 18.2 hectares.  

Prior to that, on July 26, the Creed Group Investment Fund signed an agreement on the fund’s investment in An Gia, a real estate investment and development joint stock company. 

Before deciding to cooperate with An Gia, the Creed Group joined hands with Vietnamese Nam Bay Bay to implement a project on developing 10,000 apartments in HCM City.

In May, Kyocera Mita kicked off construction of a factory worth $200 million in Hai Phong City. The factory, covering an area of 20 hectares in the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park, will make printers and photocopiers to be exported to 140 countries.

Japanese focus on Vietnam 

According to the Foreign Investment Agency, an arm of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam had attracted 2,551 foreign invested projects by the end of the second quarter, with total registered capital of $37.7 billion.

In HCM City, 787 Japanese invested enterprises operate in many business fields, from retail, real estate to manufacturing and technology.

In early June 2015, a group of businessmen headed by Iwasaki Yasuo, deputy governor of Saitama province, arrived in HCM City to seek investment opportunities. 

At the meeting held to connect Vietnamese and Japanese businesses in agricultural production held in HCM City in late July, 25 Japanese businesses met over 100 Vietnamese businesses to discuss cooperation opportunities.

Hirotaka Yasuzumi, director of JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), said at an investment and trade promotion conference held in late July that 6,000 Japanese businessmen had contacted JETRO in the last year to learn about opportunities in Vietnam.

Japanese head for Vietnam

A survey conducted by JETRO showed that one-quarter of Japanese businesses in China said they would move to Vietnam in several years. 

Analysts noted that many Japanese investors, when implementing the China+1 strategy, decided to choose Vietnam instead of other countries.

Hirotaka Yasuzumi noted that the movement of leaving China for third countries has been seen over the last several years, but the movement has risen recently.

Japanese investors this time can receive strong support from Japanese financiers to do business in Vietnam. 

One of the biggest supporters is Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, the Japanese largest bank with the capitalization value of $170 billion.

The bank’s president Nobuyuki Hirano at a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the bank would provide loans to Japanese businesses which invest in Vietnam.

DNSG