Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính meets Yamamoto Ichita, Governor of Gunma Prefecture. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Friday visited Gunma Prefecture as part of his four-day trip to Japan for the Commemorative Summit for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation and bilateral activities. 

Speaking to Gunma Governor Yamamoto Ichita, PM Chính said Việt Nam always saw local cooperation as an effective channel to strengthen the bonds between the people of the two countries. 

Welcoming the Vietnamese leader to the prefecture, Governor Yamamoto said that there was an increasing number of local businesses interested in investing in Việt Nam. 

Considering Việt Nam an attractive and developed market, he said that more Việt Nam visits for business delegations were being planned for the future to promote trade and investment. 

Gunma has the largest number of Vietnamese people in proportion to the local population in Japan, with a community of 12,000 Vietnamese nationals. 

The prefecture has seen success in its cooperation with Vietnamese ministries and departments in various sectors, including investment, human resources training and people-to-people exchanges.

Governor Yamamoto said he appreciated the contributions of this community to the prefecture’s socio-economic development, and would facilitate cultural and people exchanges for mutual understanding between Việt Nam and Japan. 

On this occasion, PM Chính also witnessed the signing ceremony of a cooperation MOU (memorandum of understanding) between Việt Nam’s Hà Nam Province and Gunma. 

He also hoped that the Japanese prefecture would explore potential cooperation opportunities with Thái Bình, Hải Dương, Hưng Yên, Bắc Giang and Khánh Hòa provinces, and Cần Thơ City, especially in tourism and people exchanges. 

Attending a seminar with Gunma businesses on trade and investment cooperation on the same day, PM Chính encouraged companies from Japan and particularly Gunma to expand their operations in Việt Nam, highlighting technology transfer and employment of Vietnamese workers. 

Gunma businesses also expressed interest in investing in electric equipment and component manufacturing, food industry, chemicals, science-technology, finance, tourism, entertainment, and retail and goods distribution services in Việt Nam. 

Việt Nam was working on the “three breakthroughs” in institutional improvement, infrastructure development and high-quality human resources training, PM Chính said, while ensuring a stable economy and improved investment environment in an increasingly complex global context.     

The Vietnamese leader believed that bilateral cooperation between Việt Nam and Japan, Gunma in particular, had seen encouraging results but had not yet reached its full potential. 

He said that Việt Nam would create favourable conditions and hoped to cooperate with Japan and its Gunma Prefecture in their sectors of strength and high potential, such as green economy, digital economy, circular economy, manufacturing of electric vehicles and semiconductors, renewable energy, biotechnology, health and high-tech agriculture, among others.

With high determination, great efforts and the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia and the world”, PM Chính believed that bilateral trade-investment-economic cooperation between Việt Nam and Japan, particularly Gunma Prefecture, would see strong progress in the future. 

Earlier on the same day, the Vietnamese government leader visited Vietnamese workers at Shibata Gousei Co Ltd, a company specialised in automobile interior components with achievements in automation and environment-friendly manufacturing. — VNS