JETRO survey: Japan firms shift focus to Southeast Asian nations

41% of Japanese companies are considering expanding operations in Viet Nam in the next three years, according to the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) survey.

A JETRO survey showed that 41% of Japanese companies are considering expanding operations in Viet Nam in the next three years or so, up 5.5 percentage points from a year earlier.

The gap between the amount of Japanese investment to ASEAN and China expanded to JPY 20.4 billion (US$191 million) in 2019 from JPY10.2 billion in 2017, the report said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.

A maker of steel and nonferrous metal in the Shikoku region, western Japan, said it is planning to shift Mexico-bound exports from China to Viet Nam, according to the survey.

The survey, conducted in November and December, covered 9,975 Japanese companies with strong interest in overseas business, of which 3,562, or 35.7%, responded.

Meanwhile, about 80% of Japanese companies operating overseas forecast that sales will drop in 2020 from the previous year due to shrinking demand in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to the annual report.

Earlier, a report of JETRO in 2019 announced that 66% of Japanese enterprises investing in Viet Nam reported profits, while 64% of the companies revealed their plan to expand their businesses activities in the Southeast Asian country.

JETRO was established in 1958 by the Japanese Government as a governmental-related trade promotion agency. JETRO is assigned to strengthen balanced and harmonious trade and investment relations with other countries in the world through a network of 74 overseas offices in 55 countries and 44 local offices throughout Japan.

In Viet Nam, it has two representative offices in the capital city of Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City.

By Thuy Dung