Accelerated service, "waiting for time" production
Two weeks ago, Uniqlo, a global fashion retail brand from Japan, officially opened the largest Uniqlo store in Vietnam - an online store. One week before, Uniqlo opened a store at AEON Mall Ha Dong, bringing the number of Uniqlo stores in Vietnam to 9, after only 2 years of setting foot in Vietnam.
“Customer interest has motivated us to decide to launch Uniqlo's online store in Vietnam,” said Mr. Osamu Ikezoe, General Director of Uniqlo Vietnam.
The interest of customers and the great potential of the Vietnamese market are the reasons why Uniqlo and later MUJI, another Japanese brand, "docked" in the market. After opening the first store in Ho Chi Minh City at the end of November 2020, MUJI has also officially entered the northern market with a store in Hanoi, opening in early July 2021.
At that time, talking to a reporter of Investment Newspaper, Mr. Tetsuya Nagaiwa, General Director of MUJI Vietnam said, MUJI chose Vietnam because this is one of the most potential markets and MUJI's plan is to open 8 markets. -10 stores in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, AEON Group has expanded the AEON Mall system in 6 provinces and cities across the country. After opening AEON Mall Hai Phong at the end of last year and preparing for AEON Mall in Hoang Mai (Hanoi), since the beginning of this year, this group has visited Thua Thien Hue, Bac Ninh, and Dong Nai. … to get ready for new investment plans.
Obviously, the retail and service sectors in Vietnam are becoming more and more attractive to Japanese investors. A large capital inflow is being poured into this sector. This seems contrary to the slowing investment trend in the manufacturing sectors, which has long been the advantage of Japanese businesses.
For the whole year of 2020, Japanese businesses only registered to invest in Vietnam nearly 2.37 billion USD, of which investment through capital contribution and share purchase was nearly 1.15 billion USD. During the whole of last year, no large-scale Japanese projects were granted investment certificates.
However, the situation has improved gradually this year. In the past 10 months, Japanese enterprises have registered to invest in Vietnam nearly 3.4 billion USD, up 89.9% over the same period. However, this strong acceleration is mainly due to the fact that two major Japanese projects have been granted investment registration certificates since the beginning of this year. These are O Mon II Thermal Power Project (registered capital of 1.31 billion USD) and Kraft Vina Paper Factory Project (invested capital of 611.4 million USD).
Waiting for good things ahead
Investment capital from Japan is slowing down, but in fact, according to Mr. Takeo Nakajima, Chief Representative of the Japan Trade Promotion Organization in Hanoi (JETRO Hanoi), "Japanese capital is still growing" into Vietnam”.
"The economic, trade and investment relations between Vietnam and Japan will be good again after Covid-19 is under control," said Mr. Takeo Nakajima.
In fact, although it has not increased sharply, capital from Japan is still entering Vietnam. Japanese investors are also persistently carrying out investment, production and business activities in Vietnam. Typically, the investment activities of the above retail and service businesses.
In May 2021, Fujikin Da Nang Research, Development and Production Center, with a total investment of 35 million USD, was started construction. Meanwhile, Sumitomo Group is still persisting with phase II of Thang Long Industrial Park (Hung Yen), despite being delayed by about a year due to the impact of Covid-19. Sumitomo is also working on the Van Phong 1 BOT Thermal Power Project.
And NSG Vietnam Glass Industry Co., Ltd., with 626 million USD of investment capital, besides promoting the production of 2 production lines with a capacity of 500 tons/day in Ba Ria - Vung Tau, is also working ready for line 3, capacity 600 tons/day, expected to come into operation at the end of 2025…
Japanese businesses, in fact, have always appreciated the attractiveness of Vietnam's destination. In contrast, Vietnam always looks forward to quality investment capital from Japan.
Accumulated so far, Japan has registered to invest in Vietnam nearly 64 billion USD. In an effort to stimulate the flow of Japanese capital and remove difficulties for investment, production and business activities of Japanese enterprises, recently, the Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative phase 8 was officially launched.
Moreover, another important information is that, at the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will pay an official visit to Japan from November 22-25. The Prime Minister's visit to Japan will be a great opportunity to promote economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two sides.
It is known that at a meeting on the sidelines of the COP26 Conference in Glasgow (United Kingdom) on November 2, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio discussed measures to maintain business activities. investment, business and production between the two sides when the epidemic is under control.
At that meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that Vietnam welcomes and creates favorable conditions for Japanese enterprises to produce and do business, expand investment in Vietnam, and maintain supply chains and products. made in Vietnam. For his part, the Japanese Prime Minister thanked and wished that Vietnam would continue to pay attention to supporting Japanese enterprises to resume production and business activities in Vietnam.
All are promising good things ahead.
Source: Tinnhanhchungkkhoan
(Translated by Google)