The economic stimulus package would help foster the Japanese
economy,
thus helping stimulate the domestic demand and production Nguyen Trung Dung,
Vietnamese counselor to Japan said. Vietnam considers Japan a big export market
so this comes very good news for the country.
Japan consumed $13 billion worth of Vietnamese products in
2012, mostly footwear, seafood and farm produce making them as one of the three
major export markets for Vietnam.
Although the economic stimulus package, by the nature, is
the monetary policy loosening, or the devaluation of the yen, according to
Dung.
Japanese yen has depreciated by 16 percent from the time
that the Abe cabinet came to power, which denotes that that imported goods have
turn out to be more costly for Japanese consumers. In the Japanese market the
Vietnamese exports will have to go up against domestic products fiercely.
Japanese exports have decline in recent years and the
Japanese yen depreciation could be seen as a move of the Japanese government to
improve it. To pick the economy up, stimulating the domestic demand is now the
number one in the priority task of the Japanese government. Hence, Vietnam
would facilitate the chances to import machines and equipments from Japan at
lower prices.
Vietnam would get benefit from the Japan’s economic stimulus
package affirmed Vu Tien Loc, Chair of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (VCCI), after analyzing Vietnamese and Japanese import and export items.
Advantageous export items of Vietnam are garments, footwear
and processed food while Japan is the country which has a high demand for farm
produce and consumer goods such as mentioned.
“A lot of Vietnamese export items to Japan are not the
advantageous products of the country, most of which cannot be made in Japan or
made at very high production costs,” Loc said.
The wave of Japanese businesses making investment in Vietnam
may become more obvious, Loc also thought of these. Japanese investors now aim to
make outward investment, set up production bases overseas which make products
for export back to Japan.
On the other hand, the consumption scale would determine the
benefits for Japanese goods, Loc agrees. The yen decline would make the trade
in more pricey.
Next to the crude oil, Vietnam’s garment industry is the
second biggest exporter to Japan, obtaining the export turnover of $1.97
billion in 2012, equal to 6.2 percent of the Japanese imports,.
Le Tien Truong, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Textile and
Garment Group, said the export turnover to Japan in 2013 is hoped to reach
$2.37 billion, up by 18 percent over 2012.
Le Quang Hung, President of Garmex Saigon, also hopes that
the demand from Japan would increase as a result of the economic stimulus package.
The number of orders has increased by 10 percent in
comparison with 2012, and that the figure could have been higher. However, the
company had to refuse some orders because of the limited production capacity, a
senior executive of the Saigon 3 Garment Company said.
