Vietnam – Japan

Vietnam and Japan established diplomatic relation in September 1973. Japan is one of the most important economic partners of Viet Nam.

Trade: Each of the two countries has applied the most-favored nation status to each other since 1999. The main export products of Viet Nam to Japan are seafood, textile, crude oil, electric cables and furniture. The main Japanese products exported to Viet Nam are machinery, steel, electronics, motorbikes, textile material and leather. The two sides aim to raise the total bilateral trade volume to US$ 15 billion in 2010. From January 2007 the two countries have begun official negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

Foreign Direct Investment: By March, 2007, there had been 767 Japanese investment projects in effect in Viet Nam with the total registered capital up to US$ 7.8 billion, and Japan is the fourth largest investor in Viet Nam. In 2006 alone, Japanese investors invested 1.34 billion USD into Viet Nam through 137 new projects and the expansion of the existing 85 projects. The two sides have been actively implementing the second stage of the Viet Nam – Japan Joint Initiative on improving the investment environment in Viet Nam.

Official Development Aids (ODA): Japan is the largest donor to Viet Nam. From 1992 to 2005, the total Japanese ODA for Viet Nam reached about US$ 11 billion, accounting for over 30% of the total committed ODA from the international community to Viet Nam; the said amount includes US$ 1.4 billion of non-refundable aids. The two sides agreed that the aids programs of Japan to Viet Nam will focus mainly on following five fields: (i) Human Resource Development and Institutional Improvement; (ii) Infrastructure Development (Electricity, Transport etc.); (iii) Agriculture and Rural Development (vi) Education, Health; and (v) Environment. On 2nd July, 2004, Japan announced that its new ODA policy regarding Viet Nam would be limited to three targets: (i) promotion of the economic growth, (ii) social-life improvement and (iii) Institutional Improvement.

Economic and Trade Agreement between Vietnam and Japan:

JapanVIetnam_EPA_implement

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VN-Japan_economic_partnership_21Dec2008