Floodgates swing open for Japanese investment

Japanese SMEs Development JSC, which has the total investment capital of VND772 billion ($36.07 million), is a joint venture between Tin Nghia Corporation (55 per cent), Japan’s Forval (35 per cent) and Dong Nai Container Terminal Joint Stock Company (10 per cent). It will specialise in investment co-operation and leasing factory facilities in the park.

“The joint venture is targeting at Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that operate in electronics and mechanics and do not cause environmental pollution,” Quach Van Duc, chairman of Japanese SMEs Development JSC, told VIR.

The joint venture’s factory facilities for lease can accommodate about 100 investors. They are equipped with complete infrastructure, which can meet Japanese investors’ requirements about electricity, water, wastewater collection and treatment.

“These factors will facilitate businesses that are keen to invest in Dong Nai,” Duc added.

Located in Vietnam’s key southern economic zone, Dong Nai has become an attractive destination for many Japanese investors. With the new company, more Japanese investments are expected to come to the province.

Tsutomu Sakagami, president of the Japanese Business Association in Ho Chi Minh City (JBAH), said that the association had nearly 700 members who had invested in many southern cities and provinces, including 80 in Dong Nai. Most of the Japanese businesses in Dong Nai had been operating effectively.

Most recently in April 2015, Japanese-invested Tone Vietnam Co. Ltd. commenced operations and inaugurated a $5 million factory producing handheld tools in Nhon Trach 3. The company is an affiliate of Japan’s Tone Co. Ltd, with 80 years of experience in portable tool manufacturing. It leased two hectares of land at the park in 2010.

Remarkably, many new Japanese businesses have visited the province to seek investment opportunities. Particularly, in March 2015, a delegation of 10 Japanese firms conducted a fact-finding trip to Dong Nai. Three months later, a group of Japanese enterprises from Japan’s Nagoya region also studied the possibilities of investing there.

Dong Nai currently houses about 1,230 active foreign invested projects worth more than $22.5 billion. Among them, Japan has 198 projects with the total registered capital of $3.5 billion, ranking third among countries and territories currently investing in the province.