IT tops among sectors with Vietnamese investment into Japan
IT tops among sectors with Vietnamese investment into Japan
Information technology is the most popular field of investment for Vietnamese companies in Japan.
According to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Japan is nowhere near the top choice for Vietnamese companies when making an investment, ranking 45th out of 68 countries, with 35 projects and a combined investment of $6.6 million.
However, while outbound investment to traditional destinations prioritises natural resources exploitation and agriculture, Vietnamese investment in Japan centres around science and technology, with a focus on IT.
“The number of projects is not high and their scale is small but the projects are very profitable, especially in IT and software development. They produce high added value and contribute to increasing the skill of Vietnamese IT professionals,” said FIA in a report presented on July 5 at the event held by Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) to promote investment in Japan.
The agency said that Vietnam had a lot of advantages in providing IT services to Japan, including a large base of young, skilled and creative engineers who have good foreign language proficiency. Especially in the field of IT, the number of university graduates is on the rise, offering a workforce at regionally competitive wage levels. Moreover, there are more and more Vietnamese students going to school or doing research in Japan: as of now their number has reached 15,000 and is poised to grow steadily in the future.
In 2013, Vietnam became Japan’s second largest partner in software outsourcing, following China.
Cumulative outbound Vietnamese investment as of the end of May stood at $20.24 billion, of which the top ten countries account for $18.01 billion. Laos ranked first with $5.11 billion, followed by Russia with $2.93 billion, and Cambodia with $2.86 billion. Other countries in the top ten are Venezuela, Peru, Algeria, Malaysia, Myanmar, the US, and Tanzania.
