Over recent years, appealing for Japanese businesses to invest in Da Nang has been considered one of the city’s top priorities because Japan is well-known for its modern industrial sector, advanced technologies, serious labour attitude, and high sense of responsibility.

Currently, the city is now home to 97 Japanese-investment projects, worth around 400 million USD in total.  This figure is very modest in comparison with 716 in Ha Noi and 839 in Ho Chi Minh City.

The main reason is thought to be that Da Nang is a young city, recognised as a dynamic economic hub in the central region only 20 years ago.  In addition, there are few direct flights between Da Nang and Japan, with only 5 Da Nang-Narita direct return flights each week.

Workers at the Tokai company in the Hoa Cam Industrial Park

Most notably, the city is facing a severe shortage of land for business purposes at its industrial parks, and its incentive policies for domestic and foreign investors are uncompetitive against Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City.  There is a lack of employees who can speak Japanese fluently and therefore interpret at international seminars and talks. 

According to Mr Lam Le Mai, a local economics expert, the focus should be on opening direct flights with more Japanese localities, including Osaka, and setting up Da Nang representative offices in Yokohama, Kukuoka, Sapporo and Okinawa. 

Special attention should be paid to training high-quality human resources in such majors as mechanical engineering, information technology and the Japanese language.