Vietnam is courting high-tech Japanese investment and wants Tokyo to become its top investor, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said yesterday during a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Japan is the second-largest foreign investor in communist Vietnam, a manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia seeking to expand exports from apparel and agriculture to high-value goods, such as electronics and automobiles.
“Vietnam wants Japan to become the top investor in Vietnam,” Phuc said at a business forum cohosted by Abe and attended by business tycoons from both nations.
Vietnam has become a fierce competitor to regional neighbors such as Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and China in tech manufacturing.
Electronics giants such as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), Panasonic Corp, Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp have all made significant investments, taking advantage of Vietnam’s comparatively cheap, but increasingly well-educated and young workforce.
Ties between Tokyo and Hanoi have warmed in recent years, and the world’s No. 3 economy has invested heavily in Vietnam as growth back home has been dragged by a graying and shrinking population.
The Asian allies have also cozied up in the face of separate disputes with regional powerhouse China over disputed territory in contested waters.
Japanese firms are involved in more than 3,000 projects worth about US$42 billion in Vietnam, mostly in the manufacturing sector. Japan is the leading investor in Vietnam after South Korea.
Tokyo is also looking for new markets where it can sell major construction projects.
Abe called on Vietnam to “continue supporting Japanese enterprises [and] listening to experiences from Japanese companies in high-tech areas.”
He earlier said that investment would focus on “projects to upgrade high-quality infrastructure.”
The leaders did not outline specific areas of investment, but officials earlier said that Japan was interested in high-speed railway projects and airport infrastructure.
Earlier during Abe’s two-day trip, officials said Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp would invest in a thermal power plant in Vietnam’s central Ha Tinh Province.
Members of Vietnam’s business community welcomed the push toward high-tech at the meeting, which was attended by several Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi, Canon Inc and Fukuyama Transporting Co.
“[It] will surely contribute to improving the quality of life in Vietnam,” Vietnam-based N&G Investment CEO Nguyen Hoang told reporters.
Vietnam, an authoritarian one-party state, has become a hot spot for private investment in recent years, especially in the manufacturing and consumer sectors.
Foreign investment last year shot up 9 percent year-on-year, hitting a record US$15.8 billion.
Although growth has remained relatively strong in recent years, the nation’s GDP last year rose 6.2 percent, down from 2015 and falling shy of its growth target of between 6.7 and 7 percent.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last