Japanese Investors Flex Muscles.

(From Saigon Times Magazine)

Byline: Quoc Hung

The biggest of the multinational corporations are among the Japanese investors that are expanding investment in Vietnam

[QQ] Experts say a new wave of Japanese invest-ment is coming to Viet-nam, which is increas-ingly being used as a production base for worldwide export as well as local sales.

On September 13, the electronics and household appliance giant Sanyo opened its first factory to assemble digital cameras in Vietnam. The US$13-million project in Bien Hoa 2 Industrial Zone, Dong Nai Province, will soon employ 600 people and the workforce will rise to 2,000 next year. In the first year of operation, it will produce one million cameras, and the output will be raised to three million in the second year and five million in the third year. This is Sanyo's second project in Vietnam, raising its total investment here to US$53 million. The first project, also in Bien Hoa 2 IZ, produces washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners.

The new project will export all its output. Shigeru Wada, general director of Sanyo DI Solutions Vietnam Corporation, says the investment is aimed at taking advantage of cheap local labor to improve the price competitiveness of Sanyo products in the wake of growing stiff competition. …