Last updated: 16:13 - June 21, 2006
Vietnam - an appealing destination for Japanese investors http://www.nhandan.com.vn/english/business/210606/business_vn.htm
The Australian newspaper Asia Times has recently carried an article written by Hisane Masaki saying that after a lengthy investment spree in China, many of Japan's biggest corporate names are making inroads in Vietnam.
"For Japan's small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, Vietnam was the second option, just after China," the Asia Times reported, adding that in 2000, Vietnam ranked eighth among destinations for Japanese investment, but in 2005, the country was in fourth place, just behind China, India and Thailand.
According to the Asia Times, since 2005, Vietnam has seen a spate of big investment projects by prominent Japanese firms such as Yamaha Motor Co and Mabuchi Motor Co, which invested US $48 million and US $40 million, respectively. Nippon Sheet Glass Co's US $145 million joint-venture factory with a local firm is also under construction, as is work on Canon Inc's new US $70 million printer factory. Honda Motor Co has also announced that it will pour US $60 million into a local auto factory within the next five years.
"Small and medium-sized Japanese firms are also flocking to Vietnam," the paper emphasised.
The Asia Times said that Japan is seen by Vietnam as its most effective foreign investor in terms of the percentage of promised investments that actually materialise.
According to the newspaper, the current boom of Japanese and other foreign investment in Vietnam is the second wave of investment. The first one occurred in the mid-1990s after the lifting of US economic sanctions against the Southeast Asian country in 1994 and the establishment of full diplomatic ties between Washington and Hanoi the following year.
Meanwhile, the Algerian daily Nation in its June 19 edition published an article praising Vietnam's economic achievements over the past 20 years of Doi Moi (Renovation).
Many foreign observers agreed that the economic achievements that Vietnam - a country that had experienced two resistance wars - recorded over the past 20 years were remarkable, the daily stressed.
US Secretary of Defence Donald H. Rumsfeld was quoted by the daily as saying that he welcomed the economic progress that Vietnam has made in a short time and that the relationship between the US and Vietnam is progressing.
Vietnam can be proud of its considerable economic achievements, including high economic and export growth rates, the paper said, quoting a report of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as forecasting that Vietnam would register the highest economic growth in 2006 in Southeast Asia, and it could retain that economic growth rate in 2007. (VNA)
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