Investors from Japan key to infrastructure

HA NOI — Viet Nam needs to attract private investment capital from Japan in order to fund its infrastructure development, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong told a Vietnam News Agency correspondent in Tokyo before concluding his working visit to Japan last Sunday.

The visit was intended to promote public-private partnerships in large-scaled infrastructure construction projects in Viet Nam, as well as attract investment from Japanese small- and medium-sized enterprises and to encourage indirect investment in Viet Nam's capital markets, Dong said.

Viet Nam had capital requirements of at least US$15 billion per year for the next decade to complete large-scale infrastructure development, he noted, adding that 50-60 per cent of these capital needs would have to be met from private sources of investment.

He said he agreed with experts from Japan's Daiwa Institute of Research that Viet Nam should shift from a dependence on official development assistance (ODA) to mobilising capital from the private sector to develop infrastructure with the application of the public-private partnerships model.

Using this model, it would be feasible for Viet Nam to raise $60-70 billion over the next 10 years, Dong said, a figure less than 1 per cent of Asia's estimated total investment during the period, according to data discussed at the Viet Nam-Japan economic seminar in Tokyo on August 3.

At the seminar, Japanese businesses expressed keen interest in investing in Viet Nam under this model, he said, adding that Japan had been an economic partner to Viet Nam for the two past decades and would become its most important economic partner in the coming decade. — VNS