On March 18, 2014, President Truong Tan Sang and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held high-level talks. Based on the bilateral cooperation relationship that has developed strongly in recent years, the two sides decided to upgrade the Vietnam – Japan Strategic Partnership to a new height into a Deep Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia. This decision makes Japan become the first country in the G7 group to establish a strategic partnership with Vietnam. Both Vietnam and Japan are currently members of three bilateral and multilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs): The Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJFTA); The ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (AJCEP) and The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) are opening up a lot of opportunities and favorable conditions for development for business activities trade between the two countries.
Currently, Japan is the leading economic partner of Vietnam:
- The largest ODA donor country, with a total loan value as of December 2019 of 2,578 billion Yen, equivalent to about $23.76 billion, accounting for 26.3% of the total signed foreign loan capital of the Government.
- The second-largest investor, with a total investment capital of 2.44 billion USD by the first half of 2021 and an increase of 66.8% over the same period last year.
- The 3rd largest tourism partner. According to statistics of the Japan Tourism Promotion Agency (JNTO) and the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, in the past 10 years, Japanese visitors to Vietnam have increased continuously, with an increase average growth is 8-10%. The total number of two-way exchange visitors between Japan and Vietnam in 2019 reached 1,447,000 arrivals (up 18.9% compared to 2018), Vietnamese visitors to Japan reached 495,000 arrivals (up 27.3%). Japanese visitors to Vietnam reached about 952,000 arrivals (up 15.2%). This is the highest increase in years.
- The 4th largest trading partner. The two countries have given each other the most favored nation tax rate since 1999. Total import and export turnover in the first eight months of 2020 reached 25.2 billion USD (down 1.8% over the same period in 2019), of which, imports reached 12.8 billion USD (up 3.1%) compared to the same period in 2019), exports reached 12.5 billion USD (down 6.4% over the same period in 2019).
Currently, there are more than 2,500 Japanese enterprises, many of which belong to large economic groups, successfully investing and doing business in Vietnam and are planning to expand their development scale. In the context of industrial revolution 4.0, Japanese businesses focus on investing in Vietnam in the fields of transportation infrastructure development, clean energy, processing industry, electronics industry, manufacturing, and technology. supporting industries, high-tech agriculture, logistics, aviation, high-class hotels,...
To connect Vietnamese and Japanese businesses in Vietnam, with a wide network of business partners, we support the connection and organize trade seminars between Vietnamese and Japanese businesses. For example, the unexpected success of the Vietnam-Japan Kizuna Trade Fair 2019, opening up valuable trade opportunities and meaningful cultural exchanges through exciting activities at The Youth Cultural House of Ho Chi Minh City.
Impressed by what Vietnamese businesses bring to the program, Japanese partners have made promises and cooperation in the future, specifically:
- Lazy Snack group and Administer Company hopes to cooperate with IMC Corporation to connect programs and events, and bring Japanese artists and stars to Vietnam to exchange and perform.
- Matsuda Cities Construction Group looks forward to cooperating with Tohoku Song Da Company to combine a high-class personnel transfer program to serve the company's construction projects in Japan.
- Impact Investment Consultancy Co., Ltd. will come to Japan to sign an investment development contract in Japan.
- VN-ITC Group will invest in the industrial park for Japanese factories to come to Vietnam.
- The group of member companies and the Youth Cultural House will cooperate with Kizuna - JVC to organize the annual Vietnam Japan Kizuna Trade Fair with a scale that is promised to be more and more monumental.
