VietNamNet Bridge briefs a talk between Mr Shigekazu Utsunomiya and a VNExpress reporter.

What do you think about Vietnam’s stock market?
Since the 1990s, Japan’s economic growth has slowed down, which makes the investment within Japan less attractive. As a result, Japanese investors tend to shift their investment into developing countries. Japanese investors have been paying special attention to Vietnam’s stock market in the last year.

Vietnam has been witnessing very high growth rates in the last few years, and the population is very young, both of which are attractive to Japanese investors.

How can Japanese investors access and get updated information about Vietnam’s stock market?

Now in Japan, there is more information about Vietnam’s stock market than information about the Chinese or American stock markets. Besides our website www.moneyvietnam.com there are several tens of other operational websites providing information (in Japanese) about Vietnam’s stock market for investors. Three books providing detailed information about Vietnam’s stock market have come out recently, which give detailed explanations about the laws and regulations related to securities investment in Vietnam.

Besides TMMP, many other companies and investment funds provide investors with training courses on doing business in Vietnam. Mass media always has reportages and news about Vietnam’s stock market. Therefore, many Japanese investors, who come to Vietnam for the first time, can have a thorough grasp of Vietnam’s securities, market performance and they know well which business fields can bring high profit.

What would you say about the investment tendencies of Japanese people?

There are two important factors, address of investment and time of investment. Now the world’s oil price is escalating; therefore, it would be profitable to inject money in oil and gas companies. Japanese investors do not care much about the price fluctuations every day; they aim at long-term investment.

As for most Japanese investors, it would be wise to make investment in Vietnamese companies when the national economy performs well, though share prices go up and down at certain moments.

What predictions would you make about the investment of Japanese people in Vietnam’s stock market in several years?

The value of the listed capital, both at HCM City and Hanoi Securities Trading Centres, estimated at Yen2,500bil, proves to be quite small compared to that in Japan (yen550-600,000bil). However, Japanese investors still put high hopes on Vietnam’s stock market.

As far as I know, some 1,000 Japanese investors have opened accounts for making securities transactions in Vietnam. I think the number may rise to 100,000 in several years. There are 13mil Japanese people who make investment in securities, including 100,000 injecting money in China.

Of course, in order to lure 100,000 Japanese investors to Vietnam in the next several years, I think, Vietnam needs to provide online transactions. If Vietnam can do this, I think, this would attract Japanese investors very much.

Some Japanese investors have made fat profit investing in Vietnamese securities. In November 2006, I advised a big investor to come to Vietnam. He later injected $800,000 in Vietnamese securities and got $1.5mil back within only several months.

Source: VNE