(MPI) - On March 27, 2024, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in coordination with the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam and the Vietnam-Japan Economic Committee under the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), held a meeting to launch the Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative in the New Era, Phase 1. Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung and Co-Chairmen of the Japan-Vietnam Economic Committee, Mr. Masayuki Hyodo and Mr. Fujimoto Masayoshi chaired the meeting.
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| Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative in the New Era, Phase 1. Photo: MPI |
The Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative is a practical and effective policy dialogue framework between the Japanese business community and Vietnamese ministries and sectors, initiated in 2003 and spanning over 20 years with 8 stages, making an important contribution to policy making, improving Vietnam's investment environment and promoting investment capital and technology from Japan to Vietnam in particular, and from countries around the world to Vietnam in general.
Based on the Joint Statement on upgrading Vietnam-Japan relations to “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World”, the two sides agreed to implement the next phase of the Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative called “Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative in the New Era, Phase 1”.
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| Minister Nguyen Chi Dung speaks at the kick-off meeting of the Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative in the New Era, Phase 1. Photo: MPI |
Reviewing some highlights of Vietnam's economy in 2023, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said that so far, the macro economy has been maintained stable; inflation has been controlled, averaging 3.25%; major balances have been ensured; gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 5.05%.
Socio-economic infrastructure has been strongly invested in and developed, especially transport infrastructure; the national innovation and startup ecosystem has developed strongly. In particular, foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction reached nearly 36.6 billion USD, an increase of 32.1% compared to 2022; realized FDI capital reached 23.2 billion USD, the highest ever. In the first 2 months of 2024 alone, registered investment capital reached 4.29 billion USD, an increase of 38.6% over the same period last year.
These important achievements are thanks to the strong leadership of the Government and the Prime Minister, the close coordination and responsibility of all levels, sectors and localities, as well as the companionship of the domestic and foreign business community, and the support of international friends, the Minister emphasized.
Over 50 years of development, the Vietnam - Japan relationship has been continuously consolidated and developed comprehensively in all areas, especially in economic - investment - trade cooperation. To date, Japan is Vietnam's No. 1 ODA partner, No. 2 in labor cooperation, No. 3 in investment and No. 4 in trade.
In the first two months of 2024 alone, Japan's total registered capital reached 422.4 million USD, up 290% over the same period. This is a very positive signal showing that Japanese investors still consider Vietnam an attractive and safe investment destination.
Minister Nguyen Chi Dung expressed his hope that Japanese investors will continue to further strengthen economic cooperation and invest in new strategic areas between the two countries. At the same time, maintain and promote ODA cooperation for the benefit of both sides as set out in the Joint Statement between the two countries, including the following areas: Promoting cooperation to ensure economic security, Training high-quality human resources, Innovation, Technology transfer, Digital transformation, Green transformation, Strategic infrastructure, Climate change response and Healthcare, etc.
In the first phase of the Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative in the new era, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung suggested that both sides will closely coordinate to develop and implement the tasks of the Joint Initiative associated with specific outputs; closely follow and go hand in hand with strategic tasks, programs, and contents in line with current trends to achieve the goals set by Vietnam in strategies and plans such as the 10-year Socio-Economic Development Plan 2021-2030; Green Growth Strategy; Industrialization Strategy; National Digital Transformation Program; Supporting Industry Development Program...
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| Co-Chairman of the Vietnam-Japan Economic Committee Fujimoto Masayohi speaks. Photo: MPI. |
Mr. Fujimoto Masayohi, Co-Chairman of the Vietnam-Japan Economic Committee, thanked the Vietnamese Government and agencies for seriously listening to the opinions and contributions of Japanese enterprises and implementing many solutions to improve the investment environment to become more and more attractive. This has made Japanese enterprises always feel secure and have active business and investment activities in Vietnam.
To fully promote the strong, comprehensive and substantial development in all areas of the bilateral relationship, Mr. Fujimoto Masayoshi said that the two sides need to continue economic cooperation and development activities and the Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative in the New Era will be an important factor to promote the added value of industries.
The joint initiative in the new era will also include strong actions to promote the Asian Zero Emission Community (AZEC), promote digital transformation, innovation, etc., all of which are areas of special interest to the two countries. Japanese enterprises also expressed their willingness to share their experiences and knowledge to contribute to the development of the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World” between the two countries.
As Co-Chairman of the Vietnam - Japan Economic Committee, Mr. Fujimoto Masayohi affirmed that the Committee and Keidanren will continue to actively participate in the Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative in the new era and promote cooperation and exchange activities with the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam (JCCI).
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| Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Yamada Takio. Photo: MPI. |
Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Yamada Takio affirmed that 2023 is a special and remarkable year in the relationship between the two countries when the two sides agreed to upgrade to "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World" as well as organize many practical activities, high-level visits and people-to-people exchanges.
In the joint statement on upgrading bilateral relations, activities such as AZEC, innovation, digital transformation, strengthening the supply value chain and human resource training are all mentioned, so the Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative in the New Era will be a practical program to realize the proposed content.
The Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative has also contributed significantly to improving the investment environment in Vietnam, especially since Vietnam is always in the top 2 countries where Japanese enterprises want to invest. The Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam said that the Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative in the new era will continue to promote innovation as well as develop the manufacturing and supporting industries in Vietnam to build a sustainable value-added chain system.
Mr. Yamada Juinichi, Vice President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said that the potential for developing cooperation between the two countries through ODA capital is very large. Since 1992, Japan has provided Vietnam with over 2,700 billion Yen in ODA loans, focusing mostly on infrastructure projects. Japan's ODA accounts for over 30% of bilateral development aid for Vietnam.
“In the process of implementing the Joint Initiative in the new era, JICA will continue to promote high-quality growth in Vietnam and build a sustainable society through investment in infrastructure construction.” JICA will continue to become an even stronger bridge in the Vietnam-Japan relationship in the next 50 years, towards building a better future, the JICA Vice President emphasized.
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| Overview of the Kick-off Meeting. Photo: MPI |
Phase 1 of the Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative in the New Era includes 05 main groups of issues: (1) Promoting the Asian Zero Emission Community, Green Transformation (AZEC/GX); (2) Promoting Innovation, Digital Transformation (DX); (3) Strengthening the supply chain, including developing supporting industries; (4) Training high-quality human resources (in the fields of IT, AI, semiconductors); (5) Reforming mechanisms to improve the investment environment.
The two sides also agreed that the implementation period of phase 1 of the Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative in the new era is expected to be 19 months (from March 2024 to October 2025).
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| Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc speaks. Photo: MPI |
After listening to the working groups discuss the action plan for phase 1 of the Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative in the new era as well as commitments from the parties to actively implement the Joint Initiative, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc highly appreciated the opinions of the Japanese side; saying that the 5 groups of issues in phase 1 are all strategic, comprehensive and in line with current development trends.
In order to effectively implement the cooperation mechanism and realize the contents of the Kick-off Meeting, the Deputy Minister suggested that each working group should develop a specific action plan and agree on the implementation content in the coming time. With the efforts of members of both sides, the Vietnam - Japan Joint Initiative in the New Era will contribute to promoting the common prosperity of both business communities of the two countries, deepening the good relations between Vietnam and Japan and realizing the goals set out in the Joint Statement.
At the meeting, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, the Co-Chairs of the Vietnam-Japan Economic Committee and the Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Vietnam-Japan Joint Initiative in the New Era, Phase 1. On this occasion, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung also awarded the Medal "For the Cause of the Planning and Investment Sector in Vietnam" to Mr. Takio Yamada, Mr. Masayuki Hyodo and Mr. Fujimoto Masayoshi./.
Bao Linh - Portal of Ministry of Planning and Investment
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