On Thursday, Da Nang People’s Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh met with representatives from the city’s Japanese Business Association to hear about some issues of high concern to them.  Such a meeting will help the city authorities find more effective ways to improve the local investment environment and attract more Japanese-invested projects to the city.

Vice Chairman Minh addressing the meeting

The General Manager of the Tokyo Keiki Precision Technology Company, Mr Nobuo Kamioka, remarked that his company is now facing difficulties in recruiting employees because the site of its electromagnetic switch valve manufacturing plant at the city’s Hi-tech Park is quite far from the city centre. 

In reply, a representative from the Management Board of the city’s Priority Infrastructure Investment Project affirmed that the Nguyen Tat Thanh extended road project linking the inner-city with the Hi-tech Park will be completed by 19 March 2017.  Once in use, the new road will improve the travel time of workers to the Park.

Meanwhile, the General Director of the Foster Electric Company, Mr Takashi Nakata, said that many workers currently live in rented accommodation.  Also, it is very hard for some of his female workers to find nearby private day-care centres for their children, so they have to quit their jobs to stay at home and take care of their children.

A representative from the municipal Department of Education and Training said that site clearance work for the construction of the One Sky Da Nang kindergarten and care centre is now underway.  The centre will give priority to admitting children of workers from the Hoa Khanh Industrial Park (IP) over the 2017 - 2018 academic year.

Workers at a Japanese-invested company in the Hoa Cam IP

Vice Chairman Minh also asked the city’s Department of Construction to convert part of a student dormitory on the western side of the city into accommodation for local workers.  He added that the 3rd stage of the city’s housing project for local workers will be put into use by 2020.

The Deputy Chief Representative of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in Ha Noi, Kana Miyazaki, said that many Japanese investors in the central region, including Da Nang, are now facing obstacles in receiving their investment licences due to complicated administrative procedures.

In an attempt to resolve this matter, Vice Chairman Minh asked relevant local agencies to join efforts with government departments to grant work permits for foreigners and deal with consular authentication issues for them in a more timely and effective manner.  He also directed the municipal Department of Home Affairs to reform 23 administrative procedures, as pledged previously, for the benefit of local businesses.  

Next month, the municipal authorities will release specific regulations about receiving and dealing with opinions and recommendations from local businesses.  The answers to their questions will be displayed on the city’s Portal.

The General Director of Daiwa Vietnam Co Ltd, Mr Satoru Takizawa, noted that although many Vietnamese employees possess levels N5 and N4 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in Viet Nam, it is only enough for them to use in everyday communication.  He also said, quite frankly, that the quality of Japanese interpreters in Viet Nam is still poor in comparison with those working at the company’s subsidiaries in other foreign countries.

In reply, Vice Chairman Minh encouraged local Japanese businesses to help the University of Da Nang to offer more IT training courses taught in the Japanese language for local IT students.  He also promised that greater efforts would be made to increase the number of courses on the Japanese language in local schools, from primary to senior levels.  In particular, Japanese will become the second most popular foreign language taught in the city after English.

Of the 38 countries and territories who are currently investing in Da Nang, Japan has the highest number of projects with 112, worth in total over 397 million USD and accounting for 10.8% of the total.