HCM City (VNA) – Japanese firmsexpressed their desire to cooperate with Vietnamese partners during the Vietnam– Japan trade exchange in Ho Chi Minh City on October 11.

Deputy Director of the municipal chapter ofVietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Nguyen The Hung said Japan is theleading economic partner, the largest supplier of official developmentassistance, the second largest foreign investor, the third largest source oftourist arrivals and the fourth largest trade partner of Vietnam.

Hung attributed Vietnam’s attractiveness to itshuge market potential, high economic growth, stable socio-political climate andreasonable labour costs.

President and CEO of Tokyo SME SupportCentre Yoshiyuki Fukuda hailed Vietnam for having the highest gross domesticproduct growth in ASEAN and improving its workforce quality.

He said Japanese enterprises, with strengthsin technology and high-quality products, want to invest in manufacturing inVietnam, adding that they also want to seek Vietnamese partners to do long-termbusiness.

Chairman of Keiden Vietnam Co. Ltd MasakiHimeno said Vietnam holds huge potential for development, especially inmotorbikes, automobiles and electronics.

Last year, two-way trade between Vietnam and Japan hit 33.3 billion USD. In the first nine months of this year, the figurereached 27.8 billion USD. Japan mostly imports aquatic products, apparel,leather and footwear and processed food from Vietnam while Vietnam buysmaterials, equipment and machinery for production.

Japan was the largest investor in Vietnamlast year with total registered capital of 9.11 billion USD. The nine-monthfigure was 7 billion USD, accounting for nearly 28 percent of the total inVietnam. As of late September, Japan invested in 3,899 projects worth 55.77billion USD in Vietnam.-VNA