Japan’s Nidec outlines latest Viet Nam investment plans
HCM CITY (VNS)— Japan’s Nidec Corporation plans to expand its investment in Viet Nam to US$1.5-2 billion from now to 2015, focusing on the manufacturing of car spare parts and robots, Nidec Chairman Shigenobu Nagamori has said.
In an interview granted to Tuoi Tre newspaper during his market research tour in Viet Nam, Nagamori said Nidec has been investing in 30 countries worldwide, and has established nine factories with a combined investment capital of $800 million in Viet Nam alone.
Nidec has designed plans to conduct product research and development – the phases which were once done in the US and Japan before going to producers, along with opening plants and workshops in Viet Nam.
The research-development model has been applied in the corporation’s plants in the Tan Thuan export processing zone and is being carried out in the HCM City Hi-tech Park, according to the Nidec executive.
However, he said, this model needed the Vietnamese government’s assistance in human resources training and preferential policies to become productive.
The executive spoke of the importance of recruiting excellent Vietnamese students to work for Nidec’s research and development centres and hi-tech manufacturing plants in Viet Nam.
He also talked about the development of the support industry in the future, mentioning the fact that his factories in Viet Nam still import components and spare parts from China and Thailand.
The Nidec executive said his corporation has taken the support industry as an important factor for considering investment expansion in Viet Nam.
Nidec’s upcoming strategy aims to enable Vietnamese businesses to produce all necessary spare parts of a product in the long run.
In the short run, it will be increasing Vietnamese businesses’ participation in the corporation’s production chain to 50 per cent from the current 20 per cent, according to Nagamori.
Nidec corporation’s nine companies in Viet Nam are employing more than 20,000 workers. All together, they make revenues of $800 million per year.
Five of the companies are located in the Sai Gon Hi-tech Park, namely Nidec Sankyo VN, Nidec VN Corporation, Nidec Servo VN, Nidec Copal VN and Nidec Seimitsu VN Corporation. — VNS