Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung called on Japanese businesses this week to fundamentally transform their investment approach in Vietnam, moving away from a traditional investor host relationship toward genuine joint development, innovation, and shared positioning within global value chains. The remarks came during the second Vietnam Japan Local Cooperation Forum, held in the central city of Hue and bringing together representatives from eighteen Japanese localities and more than one hundred leading Japanese corporations.
Speaking at a meeting with Japanese business leaders held alongside the broader forum, PM Hung urged companies to view Vietnam not merely as a consumer market or manufacturing base, but as a genuine center for manufacturing, innovation, and sustainable supply chain connectivity. He specifically called for a shift from simple technology transfer toward joint development, encouraging both sides to move from cooperation toward what he described as co-creation.
The prime minister highlighted Japan’s particular strengths in technology, capital, management expertise, and skilled human resources, along with a business culture that values quality, credibility, and long term partnership, noting these qualities align closely with Vietnam’s own development priorities. He called on Japanese businesses to continue trusting and choosing Vietnam as a long term investment destination, while expanding operations and deepening collaboration with Vietnamese partners to more fully tap the substantial cooperation potential between the two economies.
PM Hung offered broader context on Vietnam’s economic trajectory during his remarks, noting that after four decades of the country’s Doi Moi renewal process, Vietnam has become the world’s thirty second largest economy and ranks among the fifteen largest trading nations globally. He pointed to Vietnam’s participation in seventeen free trade agreements and connections with sixty major economies worldwide as evidence of the country’s deepening integration into global commerce.
The forum itself, organized jointly by Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan, the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam, and the city of Hue, focused specifically on building what organizers described as a digital, green, and sustainable future for bilateral cooperation. Thematic discussions throughout the event covered innovation ecosystems, artificial intelligence, big data, digital and green transformation, semiconductors, green hydrogen, heritage preservation, and cultural industries and tourism.
Beyond the formal speeches, more than forty separate meetings took place between Vietnamese and Japanese localities and businesses on the sidelines of the forum, creating direct opportunities to translate broad cooperation potential into specific, practical projects. This emphasis on concrete, actionable outcomes reflects a deliberate shift in approach, with officials stressing the need to move beyond symbolic partnership agreements toward tangible economic results.
Local level engagement featured prominently throughout the forum’s proceedings. Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung met separately with the governor of Japan’s Nara Prefecture, while Hue city officials held their own dedicated connectivity conference with Japanese partners, identifying investment, trade, science and technology, education, healthcare, and labor cooperation as priority areas for deeper collaboration between the central Vietnamese city and its Japanese counterparts.
As the forum concluded, PM Hung reaffirmed that the Vietnamese government, along with relevant ministries and localities, would continue accompanying Japanese investors, working to resolve difficulties and improve the overall investment and business environment. With Japan representing one of Vietnam’s most significant and longstanding economic partners, this latest push toward deeper, more collaborative investment ties signals Vietnam’s ambition to move beyond its traditional role as a manufacturing base and toward becoming a genuine partner in innovation and shared economic development in the years ahead.
