The Japanese embassy in Vietnam and other Japanese agencies have been actively involving in the drafting process of Vietnam’s national strategy for industrialization, according to Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung, who also heads of the Steering Committee for the Strategy.

Overview of the meeting. Source: VGP.

In order to strengthen bilateral collaborative ties in the industrial sector, in 2013, Vietnam’s then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved the national strategy for industrialization, which is under the Vietnam – Japan cooperation framework until 2020, with vision to 2030, said Deputy PM Dung at a meeting of the committee on December 20, with the attendance of Minister of Japan Embassy in Vietnam Daisuke Okabe.

Dung added the overall goal of the strategy is to promote technology innovation, growth of labor productivity and build international competitiveness, at the same time develop products with high added value, and spread technologies that meet advanced quality standards for export and domestic consumption.

The strategy targets to have an outstanding development in six priority industries, including electronics; agricultural machinery; processing of agricultural and fishery products; shipbuilding; environment and energy saving; and manufacturing of automobiles and auto parts, into key industries with high added value and international competitiveness.

Dung said foreign investment in six industries accounted for 27% of total registered capital in Vietnam from 2013 to March 2019, focusing on electronics, automobiles and energy saving.

Except for shipbuilding with slow development progress, others sectors, particularly electronics, have created large amount of jobs and contributed significantly to exports, stated Dung.

The development of priority industries under the strategy helped transform the supporting industries, in which some local enterprises have participated in the supply chain of global corporations in electronics and automobiles, asserted Dung.

According to Dung, Vietnam – Japan strategic partnership has been growing strongly, particularly in three pillars of economy, trade and investment.

Japan is currently one of Vietnam’s top economic partners, providing the largest amount of official development assistance (ODA) to date with US$27 billion, as well as the country’s fourth largest trading partner with turnover of US$38 billion in 2018.

Additionally, Japan is Vietnam’s second largest investors with registered capital of nearly US$60 billion in over 4,300 projects, contributing to Vietnam’s socio-economic development and creating jobs for locals, said Dung.