Nearly 40 Japanese businesses are conducting investment and trade promotion activities in Ho Chi Minh City over January 14–15.

Their diverse fields of operation cover the support industry, precision engineering, automobile and motorbike manufacturing, automation, and industrial machinery.

Mitsutoshi Okabe, the Ehime branch chief of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), spoke at a seminar on support industry links between Ehime Prefecture and Ho Chi Minh City.

He explained the prefecture’s focus on machinery, equipment, technology, and heavy industry in the north, tourism and services in the central region, and agriculture in the south.

Okabe hopes his visit will help Japanese businesses take advantage of the prefecture’s complementary economic, trade, and investment similarities Ehime shares with HCM City and its neighboring provinces.

HCM City People’s Committee Vice Chairman Le Manh Ha elaborated on the municipality’s efforts to honour its status as Vietnam’s economic hub, inspiring industry boosting initiatives including industrial zones and technology parks tailored to foreign investors.

The city works hard to ensure it has the necessary seaports, airports, education, healthcare, commercial centres, hotels, and restaurants to cater to foreign partners, he said.

By the end of 2013, HCM City had attracted around US$33 billion in foreign direct investment capital. More than US$11 billion of the total was invested in industry.

Japan is currently the city’s third largest foreign investor with combined capital exceeding US$3 billion (including US$1.3 billion in industry).

Ha urged Ehime businesses to promote their products, services, and technologies locally and explore mutually beneficial cooperative opportunities with HCM City’s small and medium-sized enterprises.