Japan’s Nidec reveals investment plan in Vietnam
Japan’s Nidec Corporation plans to expand its investment in Vietnam to US$1.5-2 billion from now to 2015, with a focus on manufacturing car spare parts and robots, Nidec Chairman Shigenobu Nagamori has said.
In an interview granted to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper during his market research tour in Vietnam, Nagamori said Nidec is investing in 30 countries worldwide, and has established nine factories with a combined investment capital of US$800 million in Vietnam alone.
Nidec has designed plans to conduct product research and development -- the phases which were once done in the US and Japan before going to producers, along with opening plants and workshops in Vietnam.
The research-development model has been used in the corporation’s plants in the Tan Thuan export processing zone and is being carried out in the Ho Chi Minh City Hi-tech Park, according to the Nidec executive.
However, he said, this model needs the Vietnamese government’s assistance in human resources training and preferential policies to become productive.
The executive spoke of the importance of recruiting excellent Vietnamese students to work for Nidec’s R&D centres and hi-tech manufacturing plants in Vietnam.
He also talked about the development of the support industry in the future, mentioning the fact that his factories in Vietnam still import components and spare parts from China and Thailand.
The Nidec executive said his corporation shows special interest in the development of the support industry as an important factor in considering investment expansion in Vietnam.
Nidec’s upcoming strategy aims to enable Vietnamese businesses to produce all necessary spare parts of a product in the long run.
In the short run, it will be increasing Vietnamese businesses’ participation in the corporation’s production chain to 50 percent from the current 20 percent, according to Nagamori.
Nidec corporation’s nine companies in Vietnam are employing more than 20,000 workers and earn total revenue of US$800 million a year.
Five of the companies are located in the Saigon Hi-tech Park, namely Nidec Sankyo VN, Nidec VN Corporation, Nidec Servo VN, Nidec Copal VN and Nidec Seimitsu VN Corporation.