In his speech on Thursday at the 66^th Asia Business Conference organised by Japan’s Brain Works Group in Da Nang, municipal People’s Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh City emphasised his city has always considered Japan as one of its important strategic partner, and its key market with strong financial and technological potential.

Mr Minh added Japan is currently the city’s largest foreign investor with 180 projects worth around 890 million USD in total. The majority of the Japanese-invested projects involve in such aspects as industrial production, hi-tech, support industry, information technology, textiles and garments, fishery, and education.

‘The land of the rising sun’ is one of foreign countries having the highest number of tourists to Da Nang. The operation of the direct air routes connecting Da Nang with Narita, Osaka, and Haneda has facilitated the travelling and trade activities between the city and Japan more convenient. This has contributed to fostering the bilateral cooperative relationships between the two localities.

With the role of being a growth nucleus in the central region’s key economic zone and an important strategic position, Da Nang has been focusing on promoting investment attraction activities from foreign investors, including those from Japan, into the city. Therefore, the Da Nang authorities have pledged to create favourable conditions for Japanese investors to effectively implement their projects in the city.

The 66^th Asia Business Conference attracted the participation of 130 enterprises from Japan.

The event provided Japanese investors with useful information about the Vietnamese market in general, and Da Nang’s investment attraction orientations in particular.

According to the latest statistics released by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), by the end of April 2019, Japan had been the 2^nd largest FDI investor in Viet Nam with 4,118 projects valued at over 57.3 million USD.

Japan has been Viet Nam’s largest provider of official development assistance (ODA) since 1992, accounting for around 30% of the total committed ODA from the international community to Viet Nam.

Japan is also the country receiving the largest number of Vietnamese students with over 70,000.