As part of their ongoing business trip to Japan, a group of Da Nang officials, led by Municipal Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Quang, on Wednesday morning paid a working visit to Sumitomo Corporation Group.

Da Nang Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Quang (second, right) presents a memento to the leader of Sumitomo Corporation

Mr. Takeshi Noguchi, the Senior Managing Executive Officer of Sumitomo Corporation, and General Manager of Social Infrastructure Business Division briefed his Da Nang guests on overview of Sumitomo Corporation and its business activities in Viet Nam.

Sumitomo's investment orientation in Da Nang focuses on 5 aspects as identified in the memorandum of understanding signed with the city, in which the highlights are investment and operation of Lien Chieu Port in line with Da Nang's planning.

Sumitomo Corp. is one of the largest of Japan's giant trading companies. The Corporation is ranked in the Fortune Global 500, an annual list complied and published by US Fortune magazine, for 28 years, as one of the global companies leading the world's development. Representatives of the Japanese Corporation have visited Da Nang many times to learn local investment climate and seek investment opportunities.

During the Da Nang Investment Forum in 2022, the Da Nang government allowed Sumitomo Corporation Vietnam Co., Ltd. and BRG Group to conduct researches to put their money into Da Nang’s infrastructure projects along with others related to seaports, industrial parks, urban port areas and post-port logistics services, as well as contribute their ideas to the city’s zoning plans.

The meeting between Da Nang officials and leaders of Sumitomo Corporation in progress.

In his remarks at Wednesday’s meeting, Mr Nguyen Van Quang expressed his sincere thanks to the leaders of Sumitomo Group for the warm welcome the Da Nang delegation received.

Regarding the city’s policy on calling for investment and operation of Lien Chieu Port, the Da Nang top leader stated that the latest point of view of Da Nang’s leaders is to call for one-time investment in this project, in which, the investment process is divided into many phases.

The one-time investment in the entire project helps to prevent investors from putting their money in scattered and small way, attract the participation of many investors along with management and coordination units in order to achieve optimal handling capacity at the berths, warehouses and equipment, as well as enable the port to receive many ships at the same time.

Leaders of the two sides exchange their souvenir gifts.

In addition, the procedures for making investment policies and selecting investors for the entire project will be done at the same time to save the time for investors as these are the most important issue to them. Furthermore, the intention is to attract large investors with their strengths related to the investment process in order to achieve full exploitation of associated Da Nang ports, establish a group of investors with full strengths to cooperate in investment and exploitation of Lien Chieu Port. Therefore, this will help maximize investments from businesses, as well as optimize and modernize the management and operation of the new port in a bid to ensure that the construction of Lien Chieu Port is in accordance with the city’s planning and its orientation in which Lien Chieu Port is planned as a Grade -1 port and in the future will be a special one. The Port will have the function of serving inter-regional and national socio-economic development and becoming potential international gateway port in the Central Coast. On the other hand, this also helps investors to be proactive in making investment decisions on the particular period.

The Da Nang delegation takes a souvenir photos with leaders of Sumitomo Corporation Group

The Da Nang Party Chief said that Da Nang is speeding up the investment progress in the construction of shared infrastructure of the Lien Chieu Port project in parallel with closely working with ministries and national government agencies to quickly complete the procedures for selecting investors for this project in line with the city's above-mentioned policy. The purpose is to put Lien Chieu Port into operation on schedule, and achieve full handling capacity at the shared infrastructure which is under construction.

This is a large-scale project that plays a vital role in driving the future growth of the city. Therefore, the city wants the Japanese group to continue to participate in this project in the coming time based on principles of equality and mutual benefits to both investors and the city.

Mr Quang pledged that the Da Nang government would create the most favorable conditions for Sumitomo Corporation Group 's investment activities in the city.

In reply, Mr. Takeshi Noguchi affirmed the determination of Sumitomo Group to invest in Da Nang to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and Japan.

In the morning of the same day, Da Nang People's Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh led Da Nang officials to visit and work with PASONA Group Inc.

Pasona Group Inc. is a one of the leading staffing service companies in Japan and currently holds 3 market share in terms of sales volume. The company was founded on February 16, 1976 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Mr Yasuyuki Nambu first established the major HR services company in 1976 after graduating from Kansai University with a bachelor’s degree in engineering.

Da Nang People’s Committee Vice Chairman Ho Ky Minh (fourth, right) presents a souvenir gift to leaders of Pasona Group.

Since its establishment in 2004, Pasona Tech Vietnam has been constantly taking on challenges every day to fulfill its mission together with customers and partners, trying to solve employment problems for Vietnamese workers. Currently, Pasona Tech Vietnam operates in three core business areas: HR, BPO and ITO. In addition to the head office located in Ho Chi Minh City, PASONA also has branches in Ha Noi and Da Nang.

The IT LAB project of Pasona Group developed in Da Nang is expected to improve the quality of IT human resources (HR) through supporting local universities to open engineer training courses, as well as bring Vietnamese engineers to Japan to work under the high-quality engineer training programs in addition to helping Da Nang develop and train human resources for digital transformation.

The project is expected to put into operation in June 2023 to provide a workforce of 100 people in 2023 and bring the total to 500 people in 2025.

Vice Chairman Minh praised the Japanese Corporation for its efforts in helping Da Nang, and Viet Nam as a whole, train human resources, especially information technology HR. He also remarked that the Da Nang government is willing to give full support to PASONA to carry out its IT Lab and other projects effectively in the city.

Also on the same day, Mr Vu Quang Hung, the Head of the Authority of the Da Nang Hi-Tech Park and Industrial Parks along with Mrs Tran Thanh Thuy, the Acting Director of the Da Nang Department of Health visited and worked with the Alfresa Group which is a leader in Japanese healthcare industry.

Mr. Vu Quang Hung, the Head of the Authority of the Da Nang Hi-Tech Park and Industrial Parks (third, left) presents a souvenir gift to the leaders of the Alfresa Group.

During their meeting with the leaders of the Alfresa Group, Da Nang officials introduced the city’s investment environment and its preferential policies for investors who want to put their money into Da Nang Hi-Tech Park’s projects.

Mr Hung took the opportunity to call on the Alfresa Group to seek investment opportunities in the city. He also vowed that the city will facilitate the Group to invest and operate effectively in the city.

Leaders of the two sides together take a souvenir photo.

Reporting by GIA MINH – Translating by H.L