Members of Japan Desk at the debut ceremony on Friday in Ha Noi. -- Photo baodientuchinhphu.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub)— Japan Desk, which the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Foreign Investment Agency founded, debuted here yesterday with the aim of helping Japanese businesses learn about investment opportunities in Viet Nam.

At the event, Do Nhat Hoang, the agency director, spoke highly of the great contribution of Japan's official development assistance and foreign direct investment (FDI) to the country's socio-economic development in previous years.

Hoang said the desk would update Japanese businesses with useful information about the country's investment climate, answer their queries and provide them with legal consultancy services and investment formalities.

Japan is Viet Nam's largest FDI source with 2,434 projects worth US$36.5 billion of registered capital.

The investment and planning ministry predicted that Japanese investment in the country would likely increase significantly in the future, with focus on pharmaceuticals and chemicals, as well as steel production, machinery, transport and electronics.

Up to 70 per cent of Japanese companies with overseas investments have expressed a preference for investing in Viet Nam in the near future, said Atsusuke Kawada, chief representative of the Japan External Trade Organisation Office here.

Kawada noted that among ASEAN countries, Viet Nam was second only to Thailand in attracting Japanese investment capital. Besides large businesses, more Japanese small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have paid increasing attention to the Vietnamese market.

Dinh Ngoc Hai, chairman of the Viet Nam-Japan Business Association, told a recent conference here that Viet Nam's long-standing relationship with Japan and its important position in ASEAN meant Japanese businesses could use the country to reach the ASEAN market and seek strategic partners in the region.

Hai said Viet Nam had recently seen changes in Japanese investment, with a greater number of SMEs operating in services and information technology, as well as human resources, agriculture and support industries.

Since SMEs differed significantly from large corporations, there was a need for Vietnamese authorities to develop policies specifically for SMEs, he added. — VNS