Many Japanese enterprises want to shift production to Vietnam

Director of Dong Nai Customs Department talked to enterprises at the dialogue. Photo: N.H

Okada Hideyuki, President of Japanese business association of HCM City (JCCH), said that in the wave of shifting production to Southeast Asian countries, Vietnam was the most popular destination for businesses. Hideyuki explained that Vietnam was already an attractive investment destination in Southeast Asia with its stable political situation and abundant workforce. Especially, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the work of pandemic prevention had been done very well, which helped attract more Japanese businesses who want to move factories to Vietnam.

At the dialogue, many businesses asked questions about the procedures for importing machinery and equipment to move factories to Vietnam. A representative of Tenma (HCM) Vietnam Co., Ltd. shared that the firm was currently manufacturing in Indonesia, due to the disease, the company wanted to move this factory to Vietnam, including all kinds of machinery, equipment and materials. The company wants to ask about necessary documents and procedures to make this move.

Answering questions from Tenma Company, Tran Hoang Trong Ky, Head of Supervision and Control Division, said for machinery and equipment which were 100%brand new, Vietnam's policy did not restrict imports. However, there were some occupations must apply for granting license of specialised ministries such as machinery and equipment for the environmental sector. For machinery and equipment old and used for more than 10 years, before importing them, enterprises must ask for permission from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Representative of Tenma Company made a question at the dialogue. Photo: Phạm Thế

For goods which are raw materials and finished products, if the enterprise operates under the form of an industrial park enterprise, tax policies and customs procedures are specified in the Law on Import Tax and Export Tax No. 107/2016/QH13; if the enterprise is an export processing enterprise, goods would be exempt from tax right after import. Ky also noted the enterprise should refer to the list of goods banned from import and goods are restricted from import.

Adding to the answer of Ky, Director of Dong Nai Customs Department Phung Thi Bich Huong shared that the Government was aware of the trend of shifting production of enterprises in the region and economies. Dong Nai Customs Department had received instructions from the Government and the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Vietnam Customs on working with enterprises to recover production and business. The Vietnamese agencies have specific plans for solutions to support enterprises to move their flows of capital and investment to Vietnam. The message of the Government as well as localities and Dong Nai was always expecting and be ready to welcome businesses in Vietnam.

In customs, the Customs sector will implement e-customs procedures, promote the implementation of the online public service system, process dossiers on the national single window system to reduce the clearance time and release the goods. In addition, Dong Nai Customs Department also collected and identified difficulties and problems that may occur when enterprises shift their investment capital to Dong Nai or to Vietnam in general, including issues such as imports of used machinery and equipment from other countries to Vietnam, or problems with the late submission of C/O for goods with special preferential tariffs. Along with that, there were the problems of converting business types from ordinary enterprises to export processing enterprises or from export processing enterprises to ordinary enterprises, promulgating the tariff schedule to materialise commitments in EVFTA that Vietnam signed with the EU. These issues have all been collected by Dong Nai Customs Department and reported to the Ministry of Finance and the General Department of Vietnam Customs for considering to supplement appropriately.

Besides that, Dong Nai has also issued a plan to attract investment, including many specific activities on infrastructure, connecting transport infrastructure between Dong Nai and other provinces, expanding the infrastructure of the industry area.