Tokyo (VNA) – PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has encouraged Japanese businesses to becomestrategic partners of Vietnam’s State-owned enterprises (SOEs), especially in industrialinfrastructure construction.

Addressing the Vietnam-Japaninvestment promotion conference in Tokyo on October 10, the leader explainedthat Vietnam is stepping up the equitisation of State-owned enterprises byselling stakes in major SOEs in transportation, aviation, food and foodstuff,agriculture, telecommunications, trade, tourism services and construction.

Japanese firms, withfinancial strength, good business administration and extensive internationalmarkets, are welcomed as strategic partners, he said

Besides, Vietnam alsoencourages foreign investors in startups, as the country is focusing ondeveloping startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), henoted. 

Amidstthe Fourth Industrial Revolution, Vietnam is shifting its growth driverstowards sectors with high-added values and using state-of-the-art technologiesand high-quality labourers, the PM said.

Therefore,the country hopes for Japanese investments in infrastructure development, cleanenergy, processing, electronics, manufacturing, support industry, high-techagriculture, logistics, aviation and high-end hotels, the leader noted.

Affirming that Vietnam’sinvestment environment will be further improved, PM Phuc said Japaneseinvestors are welcomed to the country for mutual long-term and sustainabledevelopment.

He said in the face of globaluncertainties, Vietnam has maintained political and social stability, andconsolidated the macro economy, with growth rate of nearly 7 percent in thefirst nine months of this year.

Besides, Vietnam hasjoined a total of 16 new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs), the PM said,highlighting the country’s advantages of geopolitics, geoeconomics, populationas well as Internet and smart phone users.

“The Vietnamese Governmentconsiders improving the business environment a regular task,” he said, pointingto positive assessments of Vietnam’s investment environment by internationalorganisation such as the World Bank (WB), the World Economic Forum (WEF) andNikkei, as demonstrated by the country’s moving up their investment environmentindexes.

Phuc also noted that up to 70percent of Japanese enterprises have plans to expand their operation in Vietnambased on such factors as rising revenues, expanding market and competitivelabour costs.

The PM stressed that Japan isthe second biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with over 52 billion USD, andthe fourth biggest trade partner with two-way trade exceeding 33 billion USD.

In the first eight months ofthis year, Japan continued to take the lead with investment of 7 billion USD,making up 28.8 percent of the total FDI capital poured into the country.

Japanese investments havehelped lure FDI from other countries and increase competition between FDIinflows in Vietnam,he said.

The PM expressed his hopethat there will be more initiatives and proposals made at the conference, thus contributingto promoting economic and trade ties between the two countries.

At the conference, PM Phucand officials from Vietnam and Japan witnessed the exchange of cooperationdocuments between the two countries’ ministries, agencies and businesses withtotal value almost reaching 10 billion USD. -VNA