Vietnamese and Japanese officials, researchers and businesspeople
gathered at a conference in Hanoi on March 14 to discuss ways to
utilise Vietnam-Japan strategic partnership to develop the capacity of
the Vietnamese industry.
The conference was jointly held by the
Industrial Policy and Strategy Institute (IPSI) under Vietnam’s
Ministry of Industry and Trade, National Economic University and
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Participants
analysed and evaluated the benefits of bilateral trade and investment
cooperation, impacts of Japanese investment on Vietnam’s industry
development, and obstacles and solutions to improve Vietnam’s
production capacity in the sector.
Tran Tuan Anh, Deputy
Minister of Trade and Industry, said that Japan is one of the most
important partners of Vietnam, particularly in foreign direct
investment (FDI) and ODA for the industry.
Vietnam needs
specific expertise and solutions in energy production, support industry
and the retails and distribution sector, he added.
According
to Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Yasuaki Tanizaki, Vietnam should
seek solutions to infrastructure development, human resources,
institution and policy improvement.
As ASEAN will remove
barriers to tariffs in 2018, Vietnam will therefore need appropriate
policies to attract investment to be able to compete with other
countries also using FDI to improve their competitive advantage, added
Tanizaki.
The conference also discussed Vietnam’s
shortcomings in policy making and recommended the country realising its
strategies and plans.
In the present period, Vietnam should
focus on technology transfer from FDI’s activities and enhance the
capacity of enterprises and human resources in the industry.
In addition to ODA, Vietnam can mobilise capital from various sources, such as public-private partnerships.
Japanese enterprises have led investment in Vietnam’s
manufacturing and processing sector over the past 20 years. There were
1,829 Japanese projects in Vietnam by the end of 2012, 57 percent of
which have involved in the industry.-VNA