Vietnam remains a promising destination for foreign investors thanks to its cheap and abundant labor costs and political stability, an U.K. newspaper, the Financial Times reported.
The Financial Times revealed that more foreign companies plan to choose Vietnam as the best destination in the region for their investments, the state-run Vietnam News Agency said.
Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Aerospace will build a factory to assemble wing flaps for the Boeing Aircraft Corporation in the Southeast Asian country after a careful consideration.
Hirotaka Masuda, head of the MHI Vietnam, said that MHI Aerospace chose Vietnam to carry out its project, instead of Thailand as initial plan, because of high labor cost in Thailand.
A survey of Japanese companies with overseas operations by the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) showed Vietnam beats China and India with the lowest labor costs.
The Kobe Steel Group is to invest JPY100 billion (US$1.1 billion) to build a steel plant in Vietnam, whist Shiseido cosmetics company has opened a factory to supply its distribution network in Southeast Asia and China.
Sapporo, a Japanese beer producer, plans to open a brewery in Vietnam in 2012 while Daiwa Securities has launched a JPY40 billion investment fund with two-fifths of its assets poured into Vietnam.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s largest steelmaker POSCO will raise its plant’s capacity to 285,000 tons in 2014. It also is seeking the Vietnamese government’s approval to build US$500-million steel rolling furnace.
Recently, Economist’s Intelligence Unit (EIU), an offshoot of the U.K. Economist magazine voted Vietnam as one of the six best destinations for investors among emerging markets due to its high level of sustained growth.
Vietnam licensed 438 foreign-invested projects totaling US$7.9 billion and allowed 121 existing projects to add US$525 million in the first half of this year. Foreign investors disbursed US$5.4 billion in the country during the period.
This year, the Southeast Asian country expects to attract US$25 billion and disburse US$11 billion in FDI this year, up 16.38% and 10% on-year, respectively. (VNA)
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