Vietnam improves investment environment
Ha Noi , Nov. 14 (VNA) - Viet Nam has always done its best to create a favourable environment for foreign investors and businessmen, President of the Japanese Business Association in Vietnam Otani Yasuo told a reporter from Nhan Dan newspaper in a recent interview.
Yasuo said many hurdles have been removed by the Vietnamese government, including improving foreign exchange lending and regulations on ceiling loan interest rates, reducing collateral conditions, simplifying custom and investment licensing procedures, enlarging the scope of trademark copyright protection, and removing the double pricing system in the telecommunications sector.
Viet Nam possesses basic important factors to reassure foreign investors, namely its socio-political stability, steady GDP growth rate, and abundant labour.
Recent statistics have indicated the growing trend of Japanese investment in Viet Nam with more than 280 projects capitalized at about USD 3.9 billion, ranking the country third behind Singapore (USD 6.8 billion) and Taiwan (over USD 5 billion). In the first 9 months of this year, Japan's investment reached USD 56.6 million or 73.4 percent higher than the same period last year.
Elaborating on these positive signs, Zamadaki Suechugu, president of the Japanese Business Association in Ho Chi Minh City, said emerging from the recent economic recession, Japan has begun to restore investment in Asia, especially in Vietnam which has pursued a more suitable economic policy and suffered less from the recent regional economic and financial crisis.
Japan and Viet Nam have discussed ways and means to tackle outstanding problems in such major areas as law, labour, tax, accounting systems, finance, export-import and customs, and shared the view that more information should be exchanged between them to further facilitate investment and business in Viet Nam.
