Vietnam-Fukuoka conference provides fresh opportunities for Vietnamese tech firms

The conference was co-organised on June 5 in Hanoi by the MIC and Fukuoka (Japan) to support businesses, and marked the first time the MIC has signed an MoU to support enterprises with a Japanese locality.

Representatives of the Ministry of Information and Communications and Fukuoka signed an MoU on cooperation in information and communications

Also at the event, Vietnam’s Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology and Fukuoka Institute of Technology signed an agreement for academic exchanges.

This lays the groundwork to promote broader cooperation in IT and startups between Vietnam and Japan, contributing to promoting the digital economy and building a high-quality IT workforce for both countries as global digital transformation picks up pace.

At the conference, Phan Tam, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, stated that in recent years, Vietnamese IT companies have continuously expanded their investments in Fukuoka.

Fukuoka's startups are also paying increasing attention to Vietnam, actively exchanging with Vietnamese companies and startups related to IT.

Addressing the event, Mayor Soichiro Takashima said that Fukuoka is a vibrant, liveable, and business-friendly city. The city has developed policies to attract companies in information and communication technology, automotive software development, robotics, digital content production, and semiconductor research and development, among other fields.

Takashima Soichiro, Mayor of Fukuoka (Japan), delivered the opening speech

Fukuoka is the only city in Japan to grant fast-track engineering visas, shortening the visa processing time for foreign engineers to just one month.

"In other places, visas for engineers can take 3-6 months for review, but in Fukuoka it only takes one month," Mayor Takashima said.

Since 2014, Fukuoka has attracted 988 startup companies, mobilising $27 million in investment. The area is also home to Vietnamese technology companies such as FPT, Rikkeisoft, and VNG.

"The MIC has assessed that Fukuoka's strengths match the 'go global' orientation of Vietnamese digital companies," emphasised Tam.

Tam added that Vietnamese digital technology companies are entering a new stage of development, offering made-in-Vietnam digital products and services to the world, while solving digital transformation issues, developing the digital economy in other countries, and becoming global digital corporations.

Minister of Information and Communications Phan Tam spoke at the seminar

This year, the MIC will continue to focus on supporting Vietnamese digital technology companies to expand their markets and explore global investment and business opportunities.

The conference provided an opportunity for Vietnamese organisations and companies to directly exchange information, establish relationships, and build cooperation programmes and projects with partners from Japan.

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