Excerpts:

The Saigon Times Daily: Could you please brief us on the purposes of your business trip to Japan to survey Japanese supporting businesses’ activities and investment trend?

- Tran Thi Huong: As agreed between the two governments to promote strategic partnership, Vietnam needs Japan’s support in establishing two industrial zones for the supporting industries, one in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province and the other in Hai Phong City. Thus, Ba Ria-Vung Tau has decided to dispatch a mission to Japan from October 22 to 29 in a bid to study Japan’s supporting sector besides introducing its potentials, strengths and geographic position to Japanese investors.

What are the results of the business trip and how do you think about the opportunities to attract investment from Japanese SMEs into the local supporting industries in the near future?

- After the trip, we realize there are more and more Japanese manufacturers, especially SMEs active in the supporting industries, want to invest overseas due to the rising yen. Moreover, Japanese investors tend to seek new investment destinations, including Vietnam, in an effort to replace their existing industrial parks in Thailand, which have suffered heavy damages from the ongoing flood. In my opinions, Vietnam has the best conditions to receive this new investment from Japanese businesses.

As for Ba Ria-Vung Tau, we know Japanese companies have keen interest in incentive investment policies in the supporting industries. Most of these firms are SMEs, even very small enterprises with less than 50 employees. However, they have created high added-value industrial products and components with high technology and modern machines.

What have Ba Ria-Vung Tau and other provinces done to prepare for the new wave of investment from Japan?

- I suppose that localities need to improve their human resource development activity to meet employment demands of Japanese enterprises. Ba Ria-Vung Tau has finished zoning plans for 14 industrial parks and over 30 industrial areas covering nearly 11,000 hectares for industrial development. Following the survey to Japan, the provincial leaders have assigned the provincial industry department to make changes to lure more investors, especially those operating in supporting industries. The province has focused on building factories at industrial parks based on demands of Japanese SMEs with workshops ranging from 500 square meters to 3,000 square meters each.

Local industrial production has mainly relied on exploitation of resources and processing subcontracts so far and that is why its added value is on the downtrend despite annual increasing industrial value. I think succeeding in luring Japanese companies in the supporting industries will help the domestic industrial sector to undergo restructuring in a more effective way.