General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee and President To Lam received Maeda Tadashi, Managing Director, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), in Hanoi on October 1.
General Secretary and President Lam expressed his delight at the rapid, substantive and effective development of Vietnam-Japan relations since the two countries elevated their ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. He highlighted the high level of political trust, the important role of economic cooperation as a pillar of the bilateral ties, and substantive collaboration in science and technology.
He spoke highly of JBIC’s positive contributions to Vietnam’s socio-economic development and bilateral economic ties through financial cooperation, promoting investment by Japanese businesses and supporting key projects in energy, power generation and infrastructure.
The General Secretary and President said that Vietnam is accelerating the transformation of its growth model and pursuing industrialisation and modernisation based on science and technology, innovation and digital transformation; and attaching great importance to energy security cooperation with Japan and other countries amid growing global uncertainties.
He asked JBIC to continue serving as a bridge connecting Japanese financial resources with Vietnam’s development needs, and help attract high-quality investment to new projects in infrastructure, semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI) and data centres.
The top Vietnamese leader also called on the bank to share its experience in developing and managing economic and financial centres, and attract Japanese financial institutions and banks to the Vietnam International Financial Centre which was newly established in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.
Regarding energy cooperation, General Secretary and President Lam urged JBIC to continue promoting the substantive implementation of projects under the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC), and step up discussions on potential cooperation within the framework of the POWERR Asia (Partnership on Wide Energy and Resources Resilience Asia) initiative, including the development of strategic energy reserves.
For his part, Maeda affirmed JBIC’s strong interest in the Vietnamese market, saying that the bank wants to work closely with Vietnamese agencies and businesses to advance specific cooperation projects in AI, semiconductors, digital transformation, green transition, robotics and energy, in line with Vietnam’s development priorities and the new direction of Vietnam-Japan economic cooperation.
He noted that cooperation in power projects to ensure stable electricity supply for the development of robotics and physical AI would be areas well suited to Vietnam.
Maeda shared information on the POWERR Asia initiative announced by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in April to help ensure stable energy supply for Asian countries. Japan is ready to share its experience and support Vietnam in developing a crude oil reserve system, he said.
The JBIC Chairman also informed the top Vietnamese leader that JBIC will coordinate with the CPV Central Committee’s Commission for Policy and Strategy to organise the first policy dialogue during his current visit to Vietnam. He added that JBIC and VPBank will provide 27 million USD in financing for a power transmission system under the AZEC framework, while JBIC is prioritising new power transmission projects connecting ASEAN countries.
