Prime Minister Le Minh Hung pledges to fully address legitimate concerns of Japanese enterprises
WVR - On the morning of September 6, presiding over a meeting with Japanese enterprises, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung called for a shift in Vietnam-Japan investment relations from "investor and investment location" to a partnership of co-development and creation, joint research, innovation, production, and effective participation, affirming their position and role in the global value chain.
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| Prime Minister Le Minh Hung and Japanese enterprises on the morning of September 6. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
On the morning of September 6, in Hue City, within the framework of the 2nd Vietnam-Japan Local Cooperation Forum, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung met with representatives of Japanese enterprises in Vietnam.
Also attending the meeting were: Member of the Politburo, Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung; Minister and Head of the Government Office Dang Xuan Phong, Minister of Science and Technology Vu Hai Quan; leaders of ministries, central and local agencies of Vietnam; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Vietnam Ito Naoki; representatives of economic organizations, and prominent Japanese enterprises in important fields.
With a spirit of seriousness, frankness, responsibility, and constructiveness, Japanese enterprises openly and specifically exchanged information on investment, production, and business situations; pointed out difficulties, obstacles, and causes; raised issues, proposals, and recommendations that need the Government, ministries, sectors, and localities to resolve. The proposals were specifically responded to by leaders of Vietnamese ministries, sectors, and localities with a spirit of openness and responsibility.
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| Overview of the meeting. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
According to reports and opinions at the meeting, in the first seven months of 2026, the bilateral trade turnover between Vietnam and Japan reached 33.7 billion USD, an increase of over 16.8% compared to the first seven months of 2025; in which Vietnam's exports to Japan reached approximately 17.6 billion USD, up 16.6%, and imports from Japan reached about 16.1 billion USD, up 17.0%.
Japan has consistently been among the top three foreign investors in Vietnam over the years. As of the end of July 2026, the cumulative registered and adjusted investment capital of Japanese investors reached approximately 80.3 billion USD, ranking third among 153 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Japan is also the largest ODA donor to Vietnam, with cumulative ODA loans totaling nearly 3,000 billion Yen.
Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam (JCCI) Tsuchibashi Akito affirmed that Japanese enterprises highly appreciate Vietnam's stability and development potential and will continue to invest long-term in the future. The Japanese side welcomes Vietnam's direction in attracting and supporting foreign investment in amending the Investment Law according to the Politburo's Resolution No. 10.
“We align with the goal of modernizing Vietnam's industry and wish to co-develop through 'co-creation' between Vietnam and Japan,” said Tsuchibashi Akito. Ambassador Ito Naoki also emphasized Japan's strong determination to always be Vietnam's best partner in the new era – the era of national resurgence.
Resolving legitimate concerns to the end
Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung generally agreed, highly appreciated the opinions, and stated that the exchanges continue to demonstrate the trust, attachment, and spirit of companionship between the Government, ministries, sectors, and localities of Vietnam and the Japanese business community.
The Prime Minister stated that Vietnam is entering a new development phase requiring rapid and sustainable growth, with science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, green transition, and enhancing productivity and competitiveness of the economy as the foundation.
To contribute to the successful achievement of the two centenary goals and the determination for “double-digit” growth in the 2026-2030 period, Vietnam aims to effectively promote the role of economic sectors, in which the foreign-invested economic sector is an important part of the national economy.
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| The Prime Minister urged ministries, sectors, and localities to promptly review progress, focus on proactively resolving issues within their authority with a specific roadmap, a spirit of companionship, service, and the highest responsibility. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
In that spirit, Resolution No. 10-NQ/TW dated June 8, 2026, of the Politburo sets out the orientation to selectively attract high-quality FDI projects, advanced technology, high added value, with the ability to spread and closely connect with the domestic business sector. Vietnam aims to attract not only investment capital but also advanced technology, knowledge, modern management, R&D investment, high-quality human resources, and substantial linkage with domestic enterprises. The Prime Minister expressed that Japanese enterprises, with their experience, resources, and reputation, will actively contribute to these goals.
According to the Prime Minister, since the two countries upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia and the world in 2023, Vietnam-Japan relations have entered a new development phase, increasingly deep, substantive, and effective; in which economic, trade, and investment cooperation continues to be one of the most important pillars; the trade structure between the two countries is stable, balanced, and highly complementary.
At the meeting, the Japanese side raised nine groups of issues related to fields such as transportation, education, energy, taxation, science and technology, and retail; many of which have been directly addressed by the Government's leadership and actively implemented by ministries and sectors, but some obstacles remain unresolved.
Directing agencies to handle the concerns of Japanese enterprises, the Prime Minister urged ministries, sectors, and localities to promptly review progress, focus on proactively resolving issues within their authority with a specific roadmap, a spirit of companionship, service, and the highest responsibility.
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| Japanese enterprise representative speaking. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
The Prime Minister requested that responses and the status of handling recommendations be sent to VCCI to coordinate with the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam and enterprises to review and evaluate the handling. For unresolved or newly arising recommendations, VCCI will continue to compile and send them to competent authorities for consideration and resolution. Agencies will compile and publicly disclose the handling results on the Government's electronic portal and related electronic portals, ensuring transparency, clarity, and ease of monitoring.
The Prime Minister emphasised the general spirit: Issues within the authority of any level must be proactively resolved on schedule; if there are regulations, they must be clearly guided; if regulations are no longer suitable for reality, they must be studied for amendment; issues beyond authority must be promptly reported to the competent level for direction.
At the same time, the Prime Minister urged Japanese agencies and enterprises to continue actively exchanging and dialoguing with Vietnamese agencies and enterprises to share, clarify difficulties, recommendations, and agree on solutions to resolve outstanding issues in cooperation with a spirit of openness, constructiveness, and frankness.
Not just cooperation but also co-development
The Prime Minister assessed that Japan has strengths in technology, capital, management experience, high-quality human resources, and especially a business culture that values quality, reputation, and long-term cooperation. These are very important factors that align with Vietnam's development orientation in the coming period.
The Prime Minister hopes the Japanese business community will continue to trust Vietnam, choose Vietnam, and co-develop with Vietnam for long-term, sustainable, and prosperous growth; continue to expand investment in Vietnam, closely coordinate with Vietnamese enterprises to better exploit the potential and cooperation opportunities between the two economies.
In the coming time, the Prime Minister urged enterprises from both countries to focus on closely following the major cooperation orientations that the high-level leaders of the two countries have agreed upon, in which Japan continues to accompany and promote a new generation of ODA with larger scale and higher efficiency, more convenient procedures, focusing on priority areas such as high-tech agriculture, strategic infrastructure, urban railways and high-speed railways, green transition, energy transition, digital transformation, science and technology, innovation, semiconductor industry, and high-quality human resource training.
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| Japanese enterprise representative speaking. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
Japanese enterprises are encouraged to strengthen ties with Vietnamese enterprises, support domestic enterprises in improving management capacity, technology, and production standards; create conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to participate more deeply in the supply chain of Japanese corporations, with the spirit of not just cooperation but also co-development.
The Prime Minister also urged promoting Vietnam-Japan investment relations to shift strongly from “investor and investment location” to a partnership of co-development and creation, joint research, innovation, production, and effective participation, affirming their position and role in the global value chain.
Along with this, both sides should enhance cooperation in science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation, support high-quality human resource training to build a comprehensive ecosystem, support enterprises in enhancing competitiveness, and technology transfer. Simultaneously, promote cooperation, mergers, and acquisitions between small and medium-sized enterprises of the two countries to jointly participate deeply in the global value and supply chains.
The Prime Minister affirmed that the Vietnamese Government is committed to continuing to listen, accompany, act, coordinate, and support enterprises, building a stable, transparent, equal, safe, and highly predictable investment and business environment; continuing to reform, reduce administrative procedures, business conditions, improve institutions, develop infrastructure and human resources; reduce compliance time and costs, protect the legitimate rights and interests of investors, including Japanese investors.
Vietnam is continuing strong institutional reforms, completing the legal framework towards transparency, comprehensibility, predictability, and international standards, and during this process, there may be arising obstacles; the Prime Minister urged Japanese enterprises to actively contribute opinions to draft policies during this process.
Along with this, further promote regular, periodic dialogue mechanisms; the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Finance to continue coordinating with ministries, sectors, agencies, and localities to work with investors on specific, specialized fields. “We are committed to resolutely addressing legitimate concerns; at the same time, establishing exchange mechanisms to help parties clearly understand and uniformly implement regulations,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
The head of the Government believes that, based on the sincere and trustworthy relationship between the two countries, with the determination of the two Governments and the dynamism and creativity of the business community, Vietnam-Japan economic, trade, and investment cooperation will continue to develop strongly, substantively, and effectively, commensurate with the framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia and the world.
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| The Prime Minister takes a group photo with Japanese delegates. (Source: VGP) |
