Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has encouraged Japanese businesses to become strategic partners of Vietnam’s State-owned enterprises (SOEs), especially in industrial infrastructure construction.
Addressing the Vietnam-Japan investment promotion conference in Tokyo on October 10, the leader explained that Vietnam is stepping up the equitisation of State-owned enterprises by selling stakes in major SOEs in transportation, aviation, food and foodstuff, agriculture, telecommunications, trade, tourism services and construction.
Japanese firms, with financial strength, good business administration and extensive international markets, are welcomed as strategic partners, he said.
Besides, Vietnam also encourages foreign investors in startups, as the country is focusing on developing startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), he noted.
Amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Vietnam is shifting its growth drivers towards sectors with high-added values and using state-of-the-art technologies and high-quality labourers, the PM said.
Therefore, the country hopes for Japanese investments in infrastructure development, clean energy, processing, electronics, manufacturing, support industry, high-tech agriculture, logistics, aviation and high-end hotels, the leader noted.
Affirming that Vietnam’s investment environment will be further improved, PM Phuc said Japanese investors are welcomed to the country for mutual long-term and sustainable development.
He said in the face of global uncertainties, Vietnam has maintained political and social stability, and consolidated the macro economy, with growth rate of nearly 7% in the first nine months of this year.
Besides, Vietnam has joined a total of 16 new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs), the PM said, highlighting the country’s advantages of geopolitics, geoeconomics, population as well as Internet and smart phone users.
“The Vietnamese Government considers improving the business environment a regular task,” he said, pointing to positive assessments of Vietnam’s investment environment by international organisation such as the World Bank (WB), the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Nikkei, as demonstrated by the country’s moving up their investment environment indexes.
Phuc also noted that up to 70% of Japanese enterprises have plans to expand their operation in Vietnam based on such factors as rising revenues, expanding market and competitive labour costs.
The PM stressed that Japan is the second biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with over US$52 billion, and the fourth biggest trade partner with two-way trade exceeding US$33 billion.
In the first eight months of this year, Japan continued to take the lead with investment of US$7 billion, making up 28.8% of the total FDI capital poured into the country.
Japanese investments have helped lure FDI from other countries and increase competition between FDI inflows in Vietnam, he said.
The PM expressed his hope that there will be more initiatives and proposals made at the conference, thus contributing to promoting economic and trade ties between the two countries.
At the conference, PM Phuc and officials from Vietnam and Japan witnessed the exchange of cooperation documents between the two countries’ ministries, agencies and businesses with total value almost reaching US$10 billion.
Vietnam should give priority to areas where it has potential to build strengths, particularly manufacturing and packaging.
Vietnam has built a solid semiconductor and electronics industry before joining ITSI, attracting major US semiconductor companies. Intel Products Vietnam is one of Intel's largest assembly and testing facilities worldwide, while chip design companies such as Synopsys, Cadence, Marvell and Qualcomm have established engineering and research centres in the Southeast Asian country.
According to the Ministry of Construction, Vietnam has around 2,500 old apartment blocks and collective housing complexes built before 1994, covering about 3 million square metres of floor space, mainly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Of these, around 196 have been classified as severely deteriorated and unsafe.
Durian exports reached nearly 1.1 billion USD in the first six months of 2026, up 32% year-on-year. The industry's strongest export season, however, is still ahead.
The country's agro-forestry-aquatic product exports reached nearly 42.8 billion USD in the January–July period, up 7.5% year-on-year and equivalent to almost 60% of the annual target of 74 billion USD.
During the first seven months of 2026, Vietnam attracted more than 38 billion USD in registered FDI, up nearly 58% year-on-year. More importantly, the increase was driven by large-scale, high-tech projects rather than a surge in the number of new investments, signalling a significant improvement in the quality of capital inflows.
Manufacturing and engineering posted the strongest recruitment growth, with hiring demand surging 70% year-on-year, driven by production expansion, supply chain restructuring and sustained investment inflows in high-tech manufacturing.
Vietnam's total import-export turnover reached 659.58 billion USD in the first seven months of 2026, up 28.1% year-on-year.
The projects in Phu Quoc have been implemented under tight deadlines. Since May 2025, the Prime Minister has directed preparations for APEC 2027, including accelerated infrastructure development on the special zone. An Giang province and investors have subsequently launched a number of major projects involving complex technical requirements and demanding construction schedules.
The NSO also reported that realised FDI reached an estimated 15.2 billion USD during the January-July period, an increase of 11.8% from a year earlier and the highest seven-month disbursement recorded over the past five years.
Household deposits at banks reached a new high of 10.8 quadrillion VND (414 billion USD) at the end of May, up more than 108 trillion VND from April and increasing by 4.76% from the beginning of the year, equivalent to nearly 492 trillion VND.
The plan seeks to develop a balanced and modern financial market that is closely integrated with regional and global markets, strengthens the mobilisation and allocation of domestic and foreign capital, and enhances the market’s role as a key provider of medium- and long-term capital for the economy and as a major driver of sustained high economic growth.
Under the province's master plan for 2021–2030 with a vision to 2050, An Giang will prioritise investment in five strategic sectors: strategic infrastructure; processing industries and clean energy; trade, services, logistics and border-gate economy; high-quality tourism; and high-tech agriculture, ecological development and the circular economy.
According to the VCCI, these measures are not only necessary for managing potential risks arising from US trade actions but also crucial to enhancing competitiveness and meeting growing international expectations on compliance, product origin, quality and transparency.
Businesses say the biggest obstacle to reducing emissions and transforming production models remains the lack of financial resources needed to upgrade technologies, modernise production lines and build governance systems that comply with global sustainability standards.
Once operations stabilise, Lien Khuong International Airport in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong is projected to serve approximately 6,800 passengers a day, nearly 1,000 more than before its temporary closure. Passenger throughput during the final four months of 2026 is forecast to reach around 816,000.
The growing number of international retailers and importers choosing Ho Chi Minh City as a sourcing destination underscores the city's transformation from a trade promotion venue into a regional procurement hub.
The PM called on the business community, business associations and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) to strengthen self-reliance, innovation and competitiveness by improving governance, adopting advanced technologies, enhancing product quality and using capital more efficiently.
Under Decree No. 263/2026/ND-CP, qualified projects are given priority to participate in State support programmes as well as funds and policies on research and development, technological innovation, technology transfer, human resource training, investment promotion and trade promotion.
In its latest economic outlook report, Standard Chartered said the adjustment follows Vietnam’s positive economic performance in the first half of the year, with growth drivers continuing to gain momentum.