# Looks: Japanese Travel to Vietnam for Stock Investment



## shevaub (6 June 2007)

Many Japanese are traveling to Viet Nam and other countries to invest in stocks due to low interest rates in Japanese banks (1% yearly), said a representative of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation’s (JBIC) Osaka branch.
In recent years, the Southeast Asian region including Viet Nam has become a popular destination for Japanese elderly who tire of high living expenses in their country, Mr. Koyanagi- representative of the bank said to SGGP at the Investment Opportunity Study Conference Wednesday.
Moreover, Viet Nam’s ever-developing economy has also attracted many Japanese investors to the country in search of investment opportunities, he added.
Regarding to Vietnamese potential industries, Mr. Juichi Okuno, Head of Osaka Entrepreneur Group and President of the Asia Business Consulting Company commented Viet Nam also has great potential in its garment and machine assembling industries. What needs to be done now is to make the Vietnamese investment market known to the world and to improve its service industry,
Moreover, according to Mr. Arahata, a representative of JBIC’s Osaka branch, investors nowadays enjoy more favorable conditions in which to carry out their business plans in Viet Nam.
However, he added, Viet Nam’s underdeveloped infrastructure and unskilled workforce still exist as main concerns for foreign investors. Viet Nam will have to pay more attention to these problems if it wants to attract more investors.
The Investment Opportunity Study Conference was held in HCMC among the International Business Organization of Osaka and 50 entrepreneurs of HCMC. Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong, Vice President of HCMC People’s Committee, delivered a promise to provide foreign investors with favorable conditions for business and expressed her hope to strengthen the ties between HCMC and the city of Osaka.


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## shevaub (7 June 2007)

*Re: Looks: Japanese Travel to Viet Nam for Stock Investment*

The Vietnamese stock market has become an attractive destination for Japanese investors with 100,000 of them expected to open share trading accounts in Viet Nam in the next few years, said a representative of a Japan-based investment corporation.
Mr. Shigekazu Utsunomiya, General Director of the Japanese consultancy Million Millionaires Project Company (TMMP) told a Vietnamese newspaper that Japanese investors see Viet Nam as a "dawning" country with a young population and fast-growing economy.
"The Japanese economy has become much more sluggish since 1990 and the stock market is mature and no longer attractive to us. But in Viet Nam, the market is very new and continues to rise, so we will invest heavily in it," he said.
To help investors take advantage of Viet Nam’s burgeoning stock market, many Japanese-based corporations have launched training courses and begun posting the latest information about the Vietnamese stock market on their websites.
Mr. Shigekazu explained, "Apart from the most popular website moneyvietnam, there are dozens more and at least three books on the market, all written in Japanese, about the Vietnamese stock market. That’s why many Japanese are very clear-headed about Viet Nam’s shares on their first visit to the country. Most of them aim at medium and long term investment and have clear portfolios."
He said the total trading volume of Vietnamese shares (roughly 2.5 trillion yen) is still modest compared with that of Japan (550-600 trillion yen), however, Japanese shareholders have high expectations for the market’s future development.
According to Mr. Utsunomiya, there are currently 1,000 Japanese investors trading on the Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City bourses while 13 million people are trading on the Japanese stock market.


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