TOKYO — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc welcomed SoftBank – Japan's largest financial services group – to expand investment in Việt Nam, which has an increasingly improved business environment and rapid economic growth.
PM Phúc, who has been in Japan to attend the enthronement ceremony of Emperor Naruhito, hosted a reception for SoftBank Group Corp’s Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son in Tokyo on Tuesday.
SoftBank’s Vision Fund is investing US$100 billion globally to facilitate corporate innovation and create new industries and services.
PM Phúc lauded SoftBank’s business performance on a regional and global scale, especially in technology projects that help improve living conditions of people around the world.
Highlighting the importance of the Việt Nam-Japan partnership, he said it was contributed to by SoftBank via its projects in Việt Nam. The PM also applauded SoftBank’s expansion of ties with Vietnamese businesses in different spheres.
CEO Son said SoftBank had earned solid gains in Việt Nam via investments and technological companies that yielded high added value.
SoftBank poured $3 billion into Grab, making it a leading transportation services provider in Southeast Asia, particularly in Việt Nam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, he said, adding that the group has also invested in the field of payments.
He suggested Việt Nam should continue attracting foreign investment to reduce risks and attract new technologies to the country.
A representative from Grab said thanks to SoftBank’s investment capital, Grab invested more than $200 million and created more than 220,000 jobs in Việt Nam. In the next five years, it will spend an additional $500 million to develop fintech, new mobile technologies and logistics.
While applauding the activities of SoftBank and Grab in Việt Nam, PM Phúc urged SoftBank to make breakthroughs in the Vietnamese market with big projects in accordance with the stature of the largest Japanese economic group and the development of Việt Nam-Japan relations.
The PM expressed his hope that SoftBank will invest in other fields with high added value, not only in financial and high-tech transport areas.
The Vietnamese government will provide favourable conditions for SoftBank to invest in the country, he affirmed. — VNS