In talks with Hironori Kamezawa, Chairman of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), the Vietnamese leader praised the group’s contribution to the development of Viet Nam’s financial and banking sector. He said he hoped MUFG would continue to expand its operations and make effective investments that would strengthen economic cooperation between Viet Nam and Japan.
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General Secretary and President To Lam meets with Hironori Kamezawa, Chairman of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG). |
Kamezawa said MUFG aims to offer a full range of services that go beyond traditional finance. It hopes to help raise capital and bring businesses together. MUFG already works with VietinBank and hopes the Vietnamese authorities will continue to help both banks make the most of their strengths in serving businesses in Viet Nam and abroad. That cooperation, he said, would contribute to Viet Nam’s economic development.
General Secretary and President To Lam said Japan has long been an important partner in developing Viet Nam’s infrastructure. That support comes through government funding and official development assistance (ODA), as well as through the involvement of Japanese financial institutions and businesses. Viet Nam hopes MUFG will build on its role as a financial services provider by working with Viet Nam to mobilize the resources it needs for development and connect flows of capital and technology between the two countries.
Recognizing what MUFG has achieved in Viet Nam, the Party and State leader urged the two sides to build on their work in financial services and business networking. He called for them to raise long-term funding together for Viet Nam’s strategic infrastructure, direct Japanese investment into high-tech industries and help develop Viet Nam’s international financial center.
General Secretary and President To Lam agreed with MUFG that there is considerable scope to raise more private capital in Viet Nam and abroad. He urged the group to work with Viet Nam to build a stable, credible presence for the country in Japanese and international capital markets over time. He said Viet Nam would work with MUFG to help foreign investors invest and do business successfully in the country.
In talks with Shingo Ueno, Representative Director, President and CEO of Sumitomo Corporation, General Secretary and President To Lam praised what the two sides had achieved together. He welcomed Sumitomo’s commitment to creating lasting value and supporting sustainable economic growth in Viet Nam.
He said Viet Nam values strategic partners that invest when conditions are favorable and remain committed through successive stages of the country’s development.
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General Secretary and President To Lam meets with Shingo Ueno, Representative Director, President and CEO of Sumitomo Corporation. |
Ueno thanked General Secretary and President To Lam for receiving the delegation and said Sumitomo had worked with Viet Nam through several stages of its development. Its current operations include the North Ha Noi Smart City project and the FujiMart supermarket chain, both in partnership with Viet Nam’s BRG Group. Sumitomo is also active in insurance-related businesses and has recently invested in domestic technology companies, helping develop Viet Nam’s digital economy.
Ueno welcomed Viet Nam’s current development priorities and said Sumitomo would continue to support the country’s sustainable growth and prosperity through work in industrial parks, infrastructure, sustainable urban development, retail, insurance-related businesses and digital transformation.
The Vietnamese leader said Sumitomo’s work in Viet Nam had addressed a specific development need at each stage of their cooperation. He said the two sides should continue to take that approach.
He proposed that Viet Nam and Sumitomo develop a longer-term cooperation program with four priorities. These would cover industrial parks and infrastructure, sustainable urban development, the energy transition, and digital transformation and services that improve quality of life, such as retail and insurance.
He asked Sumitomo to identify specific projects soon and set out their size, location and requirements so Vietnamese agencies could assess them. He said the two sides could turn broad priorities into concrete projects and tasks by identifying who would be responsible and setting a timetable for implementation.
He said Sumitomo’s success in Viet Nam would benefit the corporation, support the country’s sustainable growth and prosperity, and deepen cooperation between Viet Nam and Japan.
In talks with representatives of SoftBank Group Corp., General Secretary and President To Lam praised its evolution from a software distributor into a global investor in technology, telecommunications and artificial intelligence (AI). He said the group’s investment decisions showed that it takes a long-term view and can spot emerging technologies with the potential to bring major changes.
He said Viet Nam hopes SoftBank will build on its role as an investor by working with Vietnamese partners to develop the country’s AI infrastructure and technology ecosystem. Such cooperation would also strengthen ties between Viet Nam and Japan.
SoftBank representatives outlined four areas of the group’s current strategy. The first covers AI models and applications, including its strategic partnership with OpenAI and work on enterprise AI and AI agents. The other areas are semiconductor technology through Arm, AI infrastructure such as data centers, power facilities and computing capacity including the Stargate project, and physical AI and robotics.
SoftBank said it wanted to work with Vietnamese partners to explore opportunities to develop AI data centers and related digital infrastructure in Viet Nam. It identified power solutions that could be deployed quickly, connectivity, technology cooperation, workforce development and the development of an innovation ecosystem that could serve both Viet Nam and the wider regional market.
The General Secretary and President acknowledged SoftBank’s existing presence in Viet Nam and said there was room for much wider cooperation, especially given the group’s focus on artificial superintelligence. He said he hoped SoftBank would build on its information and communications technology (ICT) services by working with Vietnamese partners to study and develop AI and digital infrastructure for Viet Nam and regional markets.
He urged SoftBank to carry out a detailed study of how large AI data centers in Viet Nam could form part of an integrated AI infrastructure network. He asked the group to spell out the technology and power supply options, the scale of development at each stage and ways to connect AI facilities. He also called for cooperation on technology and the development of an innovation ecosystem and asked that workforce development be included in the plans from the start.
He stressed that Viet Nam needs staff who can run these facilities, as well as engineers and experts who can design, operate and master data center systems, AI infrastructure and related technologies. He reaffirmed Viet Nam’s commitment to reforming administrative procedures, improving the investment and business environment, and protecting investors’ legitimate rights and interests.
Translated by Song Anh