HÀ NỘI — The Vietnamese Government would continue to create a favourable business environment to encourage foreign investors, including those from Japan, to do long-term business in Việt Nam, said Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng. 

The Deputy PM made the statement during a reception for Masaaki Yamada, the managing executive officer and global head of the Energy and Natural Resources Finance Group at the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) in Hà Nội on Thursday, during which he expressed his joy at the fruitful development of the Việt Nam-Japan relations. 

Dũng highlighted that bilateral relations were experiencing a period of strong and comprehensive development across all fields, especially in economics, trade and investment. 

Bilateral and multilateral agreements would bring many new opportunities to both sides’ enterprises, he said.

Deputy PM Dũng noted that Việt Nam was calling for investment in the prioritised fields of infrastructure and energy development, and appreciated the role of the JBIC in these spheres. 

In recent years, the JBIC has provided loans to promote Japanese foreign direct investment in Việt Nam, especially for developing key infrastructure systems and large-scale energy projects such as the Nghi Sơn Petrochemical Refinery; as well as the Nghi Sơn 2, Vĩnh Tân 4, and Duyên Hải 3 thermal power plants. 

As a financial policy institution under the Japanese Government, the JBIC has also joined policy dialogues with Việt Nam’s ministries and sectors. While appreciating the new co-operation suggestions of JBIC, Deputy PM Dũng asked the Japanese bank to promote negotiations to soon implement those co-operation plans.

He also asked the JBIC to consider expanding loans for Vietnamese businesses or joint ventures between Vietnamese and Japanese firms, helping them promote investment in Việt Nam. 

For his part, Massaki Yamada said projects using JBIC loans were being implemented effectively. The bank was focusing on technology transfer projects and encouraging Japanese small- and medium-sized enterprises to invest and expand their business and operations in Việt Nam, he said. He noted the JBIC was likely to arrange bigger loans for Vietnamese firms, especially those developing substantial infrastructure and energy projects.

Japan is the biggest provider of official development assistance (ODA) to Việt Nam with US$30 billion, as well as the second largest foreign investor in Việt Nam with some 4,200 projects valued at $57 billion. The two sides hope to lift bilateral trade to $60 billion in 2020.

According to a survey by the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), up to 70 per cent of Japanese enterprises interviewed wanted to invest in Việt Nam, while 66.6 per cent of Japanese firms operating in Việt Nam planned to expand their production and business activities. — VNS