Vietnam seeks Japanese investment in stock market

Finance Minister Dinh Tien Dung made the commitment at a conference on promoting Japanese investment in Vietnam’s stock market, held in Tokyo on April 25.

Dung said the conference created a chance for Vietnamese agencies and businesses to learn from Japanese recommendations to finalise policies and create a sound, healthy and transparent investment environment.

Vietnam calls on Japanese investors to eye its stock market (Photo:VNA)

Organising the conference shows Vietnam’s special commitment to Japanese investors, he told nearly 200 Japanese and Vietnamese enterprises and investors at the event.

With many Vietnamese businesses attending the event, the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance wants to help them to meet potential Japanese investors to support business restructuring, increase capital, and seek strategic investors, he said.

Through the conference, he said, Vietnam wants to introduce its policies on investment attraction into its stock market, finalise policies on foreign investment on the stock market, and promote partnerships between Vietnamese and Japanese investors.

Tetsuya Inoue, Head of the Technology and Market Research Department at the Nomura Research Institute, said the recent burgeoning of Vietnam’s economy and financial and stock markets has captured great attention from Japanese investors.

However, he said Japanese investors are keeping a close watch on these positive signs, as well as the government’s efforts in speeding up the restructuring of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and making its monetary market healthier.

To attract Japanese investors, he suggested Vietnam provide sufficient information about its ongoing SOE equitisation, considering it the key to winning investor trust.

To date Japan is the largest foreign investor in Vietnam, having injected US$35.4 billion into this Southeast Asian economy to date. Japanese businesses are currently holding up to 40% of the total value of foreign investors’ shares on Vietnam’s stock market.