Promoting efficiency

The events, held in Hanoi in September and Ho Chi Minh City in October, mark 40 years of the Vietnam - Japan diplomatic relationship, said Duangdej Yuaikwamdee, deputy managing director of Reed Tradex.

Vietnam Manufacturing Expo 2013 will take place on September 4-6 at I.C.E Hanoi, 91 Tran Hung Dao street, while Metalex-Nepcon Vietnam 2013 will be staged at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC) on October 10-12.

Community platform - Hanoi

Duangdej said the community platform would be strengthened beyond featuring machinery and technology at Vietnam Manufacturing Expo 2013. He added human resources development in terms of leadership, entrepreneurship and technology would be key elements to help support industries in Vietnam to achieve sustainable growth in the context of the soon to be formed ASEAN Economic Community.

The show will feature more than 200 exhibitors from 20 countries and territories, and provide networking opportunities and partnership chances with the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), and Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (VIETRADE) and Hanoi Trade Promotion Centre (HTPC), Hanoi Industry and Trade Department.

The Hanoi Industry and Trade Department will focus on developing supporting industries, promoting the manufacturing sector, creating intermediate products with high added value, and playing a supporting role in industrial manufacturing during the 2011-2015 period.

Duangdej said a group of about 400 Japanese business people were set to visit Hanoi, and they were particularly interested in made-in-Vietnam products.

The events include the Vietnam-Japan Exhibition on Support Industries in Hanoi, where 54 Japanese exhibitors will display accessories they expect to buy in Vietnam and 53 Vietnamese exhibitors will showcase their products. Exhibits include car parts and components, motorbikes, electronics, metal and plastic products, and packaging materials.

The Cool Japan Technology exhibition will house 45 Japanese companies that will show off the latest hi-tech products.

The Industrial Components and Subcontracting Vietnam event will provide an industrial parts marketplace for Vietnamese manufacturers and tier-one part-makers to meet tier-two and tier-two parts makers.

Ho Chi Minh City: tripleheader for supporting industries

Metalex-Nepcon Vietnam 2013 will take place in Ho Chi Minh City on October 10-12.

During the three-day event, the SECC in District 7 will feature the fifth Vietnam-Japan Exhibition on Supporting Industries in Ho Chi Minh City, Metalex Vietnam and Nepcon Vietnam. The three events will feature the participation of more than 100 Japanese companies, mainly in car manufacturing, motorcycles, electronic parts and manufacturing industries.

Metalex Vietnam is a machine tools and metalworking technology trade exhibition, while Nepcon will focus on assembly, measurement and testing technologies for electronics manufacturing.

Duangdej said the three exhibitions last year received almost 14,000 visitors, a 30 per cent increase on 2011. This year’s show will be 20 per cent larger than last year, making it the largest-ever Metalex event to be held in Vietnam.

He added the trade shows had contributed to Vietnam’s industrial sector by serving as a platform for solutions and new concepts, trends and ideas. About 500 brands from 25 countries and territories are set to be present at this year’s exhibitions. Around 200 Indian business people and 100 Japanese from Japan and Thailand are intending to visit the event.

Why Japanese?

JETRO, one of the co-organisers of both the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City shows have co-operated with Vietnamese agencies and industrial associations to hold exhibitions and events to promote the trade of products between Vietnam and Japan, while also aiding Japanese businesses seeking investment opportunities in the South East Asian country.

Hirotaka Yasuzumi, managing director of JETRO’s Ho Chi Minh City Office, said Japanese investors in China were shifting some of their operations to Vietnam or looking for material suppliers in the country, while Japanese firms operating in Thailand were attracted by Vietnam’s cheaper labour costs.

Yasuzumi said Japanese companies were leaving China for other countries due to rising labour costs and political tensions between the two countries. Meanwhile, the movement of Japanese companies in Thailand to Indochina began last year and would continue, and Vietnam was now on their radar, with investment in Indochina and Vietnam in particular forecast to increase.

He stressed that the biggest obstacle to Japanese firms interested in investing in Vietnam was the lack of developed supporting industries. A JETRO survey last year revealed that local procurement rates for materials and parts for supporting industries by Japanese enterprises in Vietnam stood at just 28 per cent, compared to 61 per cent in China and 53 per cent in Thailand.

Yasuzumi, speaking at a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City on August 9, where Vietnam’s Seaprodex Refrigeration Industry Corporation (Searefico) announced that leading Japanese air-conditioning producer Taisei Oncho had become its strategic foreign partner with a 20 per cent stake, said the investment was a pattern for business partnerships between firms of the two countries.

The leading domestic-market contractor in mechanical and electrical engineering and industrial refrigeration claimed the strategic investment showed the Tokyo-based company’s long-term business commitment to Vietnam as part of its Asian expansion strategy. Searefico has plans to expand business to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and India.

Duangdej said with the ASEAN Economic Community around the corner, Vietnam should speed up the development of supporting industries as competition would become stiffer and the AEC would substantially drive market demands across the region.

“I think Vietnamese enterprises aren’t investing enough in new machinery and technologies. They aren’t serious about product quality. We shouldn’t forget that sustainable competitive edges rely on quality rather than price. And I think Vietnamese enterprises are somehow happy with their level,” Duangdej said.