On July 14, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had a working session with Marubeni Corporation (Japan) on the plan to expand its operations in Vietnam in the coming time.
At the meeting, Mr. Masayuki Omoto - General Director of the Corporation, highly appreciated the fact that Vietnam is implementing many strategic policies, the business environment is increasingly improving, creating favorable conditions for investors.
"Vietnam is an important strategic market and our group will continue to contribute more to the development of Vietnam" – Mr. Masayuki Omoto affirmed.
According to him, Marubeni plans to expand its operations in Vietnam in the coming time with projects such as O Mon II Gas Power Plant, Quang Ninh LNG Power Plant, wind and solar power farms, and the Amata Ha Long City Industrial Park. They also plan to invest in projects to build export processing factories and smart urban projects in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, etc.
Marubeni is a leading investment and trading group in Japan, currently with 130 branches and offices in 68 countries around the world. They operate in most economic sectors with annual revenue of about 70 billion USD. Marubeni has invested in Vietnam for 80 years, with its Vietnam office established in 1991. The group's projects in Vietnam currently have about 7,500 Vietnamese employees, with a total annual revenue of about 3 billion USD.
In recent times, this investor has focused on important areas such as import and export of goods (coal, seafood, coffee, cereals, petrochemical products); mergers and acquisitions; industry; food processing and textiles. In the energy sector, they have built 11 thermal power plants with a total capacity of 4,000 MW, including Nghi Son 2 Thermal Power Plant (1,200 MW).
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh assessed Marubeni as one of the few corporations that have invested in Vietnam for up to 80 years. He said that by choosing Vietnam as a strategic base, Marubeni's operations over the past time have made positive contributions to Vietnam's socio-economic development. Specifically, this foreign enterprise contributes to increasing technology transfer, export revenue, creating jobs and paying taxes to the state budget.
The Prime Minister welcomed Marubeni's plan to expand investment in Vietnam in the coming time. He affirmed that the Vietnamese Government will always create favorable conditions for foreign enterprises, including Japanese enterprises, to invest and do business effectively.
The Vietnamese Government leader said that Vietnam has a feasible mechanism and legal framework for large power projects such as LNG and offshore wind power, and at the same time, problems related to the O Mon II gas power project have been resolved.
He suggested that Marubeni continue to consider Vietnam as a stronghold for strategic investments, in the spirit of "looking far and wide, thinking deeply and doing big". He hopes that the group will expand its activities in the energy sector such as gas power and offshore wind power to serve GDP growth, develop artificial intelligence, large domestic databases and export electricity to ASEAN countries.
Along with that, the Prime Minister suggested that Marubeni cooperate with the Coal and Minerals Group of Vietnam (TKV) to carry out business activities in exporting coal to Japan; to cooperate in producing plant and animal breeds, building brands, processing, exporting Vietnam's strong agricultural products such as coffee, rice, high-quality food; to invest in and develop industrial parks.
The Prime Minister suggested that Marubeni could open factories producing instant noodles, mochi cakes, and pharmaceuticals in Vietnam to serve domestic and export needs. At the same time, they could support Vietnamese enterprises to participate in the group's global supply chain, train human resources, promote scientific and technological cooperation, digital transformation, etc.
Responding to this proposal, the General Director of Marubeni Group said that they will make more efforts to implement specific projects with high added value in Vietnam in the fields suggested by the Vietnamese Prime Minister.