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International Symposium "Japanese Management in Asia: Building Business Partnerships in Vietnam"

Update at 11:40, Wednesday, 14/09/2016 (GMT+7)

Overview of the conference

On 10th September 2016, VNU University of Economics and Business in collaboration with Yokohama National University (Japan) organized the international symposium entitled "Japanese Management in Asia: Building Business Partnerships in Vietnam".

Attending the symposium, there were representatives of Vietnamese and Japanese enterprises, researchers and scholars from Yokohama National University, Vietnam - Japan University, Foreign Trade University Hanoi etc. The co-organizer of the symposium - Yokohama National University attended with nine professors and researchers led by Prof. Hiroshi Morita - Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration. From the UEB, there were Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Hong Son - Rector together with nearly 100 lecturers, learners and students.

Addressing at the symposium, on behalf of the UEB, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Hong Son emphasized that the symposium was organized to present the results of experimental studies on business management of Japanese businesses in Asia and Vietnam; meanwhile sharing experiences in business executives, opportunities and challenges when enterprises expanding business in manufacturing and services in Vietnam.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Hong Son - Rector of the UEB delivers speech at the symposium

At the symposium, discussions of five scholars from Japan mentioned the unique characteristics of Japanese management with topics as: building alliance partners through system of enterprises’ social responsibility; localizing Japanese specialized products in the Asian markets in order to adapt to the local culture; involvement of overseas manufacturers in the process of developing new products and services etc. In addition to theoretical framework, Japanese scholars also shared management experiences of Japanese enterprises in Asia and South America.

In the next phase, the symposium listened to practical experiences involving maintaining and expanding business, developing supply chains etc shared by big Japanese corporations investing in Vietnam, such as Mitsubishi, Fujitsu Vietnam, Bank of Yokohama.

Mr. Funayama – Representatives of Mitsubishi Corporation in Vietnam

Mr. Funayama – representatives of Mitsubishi Corporation in Vietnam said, when investing in Vietnam, Japan saw a potential market with labor cost advantages. However, the biggest challenge when investing in Vietnam is to understand thinking, culture, history and traditions of the Vietnamese people and the characteristics of the market. Especially, the enterprises need to expand relations with the government, enlisting support from the top down; besides it’s also important to connect with private sector in the form of public - private combination to develop business.

Discussion of General Director of Fujitsu Vietnam - Mr. Sei Kudo mentioned the selection of priorities for the quality of Japanese products to earn competitive advantages compared to competitors in Korea, China, and Taiwan. Currently, resources for information technology in Vietnam are relatively limited in both quantity and quality to develop the ICT sector with the latest technology and applications in the world.

At the symposium, the lecturers and students of Vietnam were introduced to Japanese approach of innovation, continuous improvement, problem solving based on clever combination between scientific principles and business practices. This is a good opportunity for lecturers and students of the UEB learn about business management, which Japanese enterprises have applied successfully in the Asian market in general and Vietnam in particular. Especially, experiences from Mitsubishi and Fujitsu are very important to understand why Japan gained great achievements in the global market.

The symposium is under the framework of the annual scientific exchange between VNU University of Economics and Business and Yokohama National University, in which Japan has been actively supporting the UEB in supplying of Japanese lecturers for short-term courses in the UEB, receiving more than 50 groups of students and lecturers to study in Japan since 2012.

In the future, the researches on Japan will continue to be conducted by the UEB, especially in the context when sustainable business and formation of TPP are attracting growing concern and coming into practice.

Some photographs of the symposium:

Chairmen in the 2nd phase of symposium

International and domestic guests attend the symposium

Ms Kumiko Ito (ULVAC, Inc.) presents discussion on building manufacturers' capacity overseas by devolving managers as in Komatsu Shantui

Participants at the symposium take a photo together.