Further joint plans likely with Japan

Further joint plans likely with Japan

Vietnam and Japan have set out new cooperation directions with Japan for both nations to further enhance their comprehensive strategic partnership backed by stronger investment and trade flows.

Agreements were forthcoming at a Vietnam-Japan business forum in Hanoi last week Photo: Nhat Bac

During Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s official visit to Vietnam last week, he met with top officials, discussing new ways to drive relations forward.

The Vietnamese side proposed several directions, including enhancing political trust, strengthening substantive and effective security and defence collaboration, and boosting economic collaboration based on science, technology, and human resources.

Vietnam also suggested that Japan actively partake in Vietnam’s major infrastructure projects through official development assistance (ODA) funding.

Japan is now the largest donor of ODA to Vietnam, with about ¥3 trillion (approximately over $20 billion), accounting for 30 per cent of the total offered to Vietnam by the international community.

Kobayashi Yosuke, chief representative of the Vietnam Office of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), told VIR that both Vietnam and development partners are aware of the importance of the role of ODA, especially in the coming years when Vietnam joins upper-middle-income countries.

“I would like to particularly convey the appreciation to the ongoing efforts by Vietnamese government on revising ODA related laws and regulations, which would contribute to the smoother formulation of ODA projects,” Yosuke said. “With clear guidance on how development partners may expedite their projects, we will seek to improve further the timeliness and the flexibility of the projects we implement together with our Vietnamese counterparts”.

Vietnam also suggested that the two countries need to identify cooperation in sci-tech and innovation as a new pillar in bilateral relations.

“Vietnamese Party General Secretary To Lam called for stronger collaboration in science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, and high-quality personnel training,” said Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “He also proposed exploiting new potential in labour cooperation, green transition, energy transformation, and high-tech agriculture; as well as deepening locality-to-locality cooperation and cultural exchanges.”

Identifying cooperation areas

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and counterpart Pham Minh Chinh agreed to deepen economic cooperation as the main pillar of the relationship, promote more substantial and sustainable economic links, thereby supporting each other’s development in the context of the current difficult international economic situation.

The two sides also agreed to promote the dynamism of new-generation ODA cooperation for strategic infrastructure projects, and enhance investment and trade cooperation in a substantial, effective and sustainable manner.

Appreciating the progress made in a number of important projects such as Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Line 1, the two sides agreed to accelerate and set specific progress for many projects that are symbolic of the bilateral relationship such as the Vietnam-Japan University, Cho Ray Hospital II, as well as projects of the Vietnam National Space Centre.

In addition, the two sides also agreed to promote high-tech agricultural cooperation associated with ensuring the food supply chain, signing the Medium- and Long-term Vision on Agricultural Cooperation for the 2025-2030 period in 2025.

Both sides also agreed to identify cooperation in science and technology, innovation, and training of high-quality human resources as new pillars of bilateral relations; and to promote cooperation in the fields of digital economic development, semiconductors, quantum, nuclear energy, IT, AI, green transformation, and energy transformation.

Moreover, they also agreed to improve the effectiveness of cooperation mechanisms and frameworks on science and technology through organising the fifth meeting of the Joint Committee on Science and Technology in 2026 and studying the possibility of establishing a new cooperation mechanism on science and technology in the direction of public-private partnership.

Prime Minister Ishiba said that Vietnam is an indispensable partner of Japan. He stressed that Japan will continue its support for Vietnam’s efforts in building an independent, self-reliant economy, implementing industrialisation and modernisation, and realising strategic goals and socioeconomic development plans in a new era of development.

The Japanese PM stated that Japan will deepen partnerships in economy, ODA, investment, enhance collaboration in security-defence, cybersecurity, peacekeeping, culture, and people-to-people exchange, while encouraging cooperation in new areas such as digital transformation and semiconductors.

Prime Minister Ishiba also visited a number of Japanese companies operating in Hanoi’s Thang Long Industrial Park, including Canon, DENSO Manufacturing, MHI Aerospace, and TOTO.

Imaging and optical corporation Canon, for instance, has a successful history of investments in Vietnam, operating four factories within the country that manufacture products such as ink jet printers, laser printers, digital cameras, and multifunction devices.

“Prime Minister Ishiba held a roundtable discussion on the current state and challenges faced by Japanese manufacturing companies operating in Vietnam,” said a press released from the Japanese Embassy to Vietnam. “He stated that the longstanding efforts of Japanese companies, particularly those operating in the Thang Long Industrial Park, have contributed to building strong ties between Japan and Vietnam, and he expressed his respect for these efforts.”

Steady progress

At last week’s Vietnam-Japan business forum held in Hanoi, many Japanese companies said they have taken deep root in Vietnam and want to expand more.

For instance, Mitsubishi is a diversified conglomerate with interests spanning various sectors, including automobiles, electronics, chemicals, energy, and finance. The company has engaged in diverse projects and sectors in Vietnam, including power generation, infrastructure development, banking, and real estate.

Meanwhile, Toyo Ink is a chemical company, producing and supplying printing inks, pigments, resins, and coatings. Toyo Ink established its first factory in Vietnam in 2006 and has continued to invest in two additional factories, thereby expanding both its production capacity and product range. Furthermore, it has plans to develop a renewable energy project in Vietnam.

Cumulatively as of late March, Vietnam attracted nearly 5,560 Japanese projects registered at $78.64 billion, ranking third in total 150 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, after South Korea (nearly $92.5 billion) and Singapore ($85.4 billion).

In the January-March period, total new capital, stake acquisition, and capital contributions from Japanese investors in Vietnam came in at $1.13 billion, up 20.6 per cent on-year, with 77 newly registered initiatives worth $342 million. This makes Japan the fourth-largest foreign investor so far this year, after Singapore, South Korea, and China.

In terms of trade ties, according to the Vietnam Customs, two-way trade hit $46.18 billion last year. This included $24.59 billion worth of Vietnamese exports, up 5.6 per cent on-year, and imports of $21.59 billion, down 0.2 per cent on-year.

In the first quarter of this year, the total trade was estimated to have hit $12.2 billion, including Vietnamese exports valued at $6.4 billion, up 12.5 per cent on-year, and imports worth $5.8 billion, up 4 per cent on-year. This would mean a trade surplus of $600 million, which is more than five times larger compared to the same period last year.

VIR