Many foreign direct investment (FDI) firms were committed to expanding production in Viet Nam, heard attendees at the conference “Strong Investment Partnerships for a Thriving Viet Nam” held in Ha Noi on Monday.

In a speech delivered at the event, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Do Thanh Trung said that with open and transparent investment attraction policies and a favourable, stable and constantly improving business environment, Viet Nam has been one of the leading countries and gained many important achievements in attracting foreign investment.

“Foreign investors expressed their confidence in the growth potential of the economy and in efforts to improve Viet Nam 's business and investment environment,” Trung said.

He added that in responding to a survey of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), up to 60 per cent of Japanese investors in Viet Nam said they would expand their business in Viet Nam in the next 1-2 years. This rate is the highest in ASEAN.

European investors ranked Viet Nam in the top 5 global investment destinations as 41 per cent of businesses surveyed by the European Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam (EuroCham) said that they are moving their operations to Viet Nam.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Viet Nam is still in the Top 20 economies attracting the most foreign investment capital in the world. This has proven Viet Nam's success in attracting resources from outside.

The report also said global foreign investment flows tend to focus on high technology, innovation, research and development, green economy, digital economy, circular economy, and clean energy. These are all areas in which Viet Nam is making many special incentives and support measures.

“In the future, Viet Nam will build and develop an ecosystem of science - technology and innovation, with a flexible management mechanism, suitable for the digital business environment,” he added.

Sharing the ideas, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Mai, Chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Foreign-Invested Enterprises (VAFIE), said that a number of countries and multinational corporations have been adjusting investment in development strategies, with stricter investor screening and higher standards. Therefore, Viet Nam needs to observe and adjust the appropriate strategy to achieve the goal of attracting foreign investment and attracting more high-quality investors.

Furusawa Yasuyuki, Member of the Executive Officer Board of AEON Co Ltd (Japan) in charge of Viet Nam Business, and General Director of AEON Vietnam, said: “We realise that Viet Nam is in a period of rapid and outstanding growth, which is similar to the previous development stage of Japan. Therefore, we believe with AEON’s experiences and know-how accumulated in Japan, we can apply and contribute to the development of Viet Nam’s market.”

He added that the investment environment in Viet Nam also keeps changing but overall, they see more potential than challenges. Viet Nam will continue to attract more foreign investors in the future.

“In the next 5 years, the retail market in Viet Nam has a lot of potential for development, if retail businesses can respond to market changes, they will grow very strongly. Vietnamese’s income is still gradually increasing; hence people want to use better, more advanced products and experience better services. Changes in consumer demand and behavior are opportunities for retailers to change and grow,” he said.

He revealed AEON Group has determined that Viet Nam is the 2nd key market besides Japan to accelerate our investment activities.

“In the next 3 – 5 years, we still continue opening large-scale shopping malls. However, to meet the changing customer behaviours post-pandemic, that is to prefer convenience, we will develop multi-formats that are appropriate for the needs of local communities and actual conditions of local areas with flexible sizes, such as shopping malls,” he said.

Khuat Quang Hung, Director of Corporate Affairs at Nestle Viet Nam, said: “With a commitment to long-term expansion and sustainable development, the group has invested in doubling the capacity of coffee processing and exporting factories in Viet Nam. At the same time, we are transferring technology and techniques of sustainable coffee farming to 26,000 farmer households - an important partner in supplying raw materials for Nestle. Sustainable farming has contributed to saving large production costs for farmers, improving the quality of coffee supplied to the factory.”

Hung added that this is one of the soft investments that Nestle has effectively made in Viet Nam in addition to hard investments into infrastructure and factories. Nestle will continue to invest in digital transformation – a factor that promotes the corporation's green transformation and sustainable development.

Hundreds of Government officials, senior economists, international organisations, and the business community participated in the conference hosted by Vietnam Investment Review (VIR) to discuss the contributions of foreign-invested enterprises to the country's development.

With four keynote speeches and two-panel discussions, the event covered success stories, lessons to learn, future plans, and possible solutions to welcome new investments across a range of sectors nationwide.

In addition, experts also highlighted new capital flows and competitive opportunities in the region, especially high-quality foreign investment flows into Viet Nam. — VNS