Japan's credit card, water pump firms bullish on Vietnam market

Vietnam's economy is witnessing a boom courtesy the rise in income as this has led to a demand in domestic market. The market has been attracting many foreign investors.

Japan's JCB, an international credit card brand, has launched promotional activities by utilizing the well-known animation character "Doraemon" as the brand campaign character.

Chief Representative Vietnam Representative Office JCB International (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Tomoaki Yamaguchi, said this is the dawn for the payment market in Vietnam.

"Out of its 90 million population, the percentage of middle class households in the country is very large. In Vietnam, not only Japanese products, but also Japanese cultural elements such as animation are very well known," Yamaguchi said.

 

"The branding activities with a very popular and charming character Doraemon, which embodies our strength as the international brand born in Japan, was launched in 2015. The Doraemon character has been utilized in the stickers at the affiliated stores, also being used when announcing the promotion activities. In order to have customers to be benefited from using the card, including chained restaurants, there are more than 100 Japanese restaurants that are part of the special promotion that has become very popular," added Yamaguchi.

In Japanese restaurant in Hanoi, the customers using credit cards enjoy special benefits.

"We see many customers coming here spending with the JCB card, which help to develop our business. We want to offer a long-time promotion for JCB cardholders. With the promotion of Doraemon character on the cards, the business has increased to about 10 per cent," said Manager Makoto, Edward Villeno.

Vietnam is attracting many Japanese firms. EBARA Corporation has recently started operation with its newest custom pump factory. The target is to enhance its productivity.

"Since 1995, over the past 20 years, I have been doing Vietnam-based business. With this expansion opportunity, the production of large pumps has become possible. The size has been increased 3.5 times. At the same time, the capacity for cranes and function testing has been doubled, as well as that of the motor have also been made more powerful, which enabled the production of large pumps. EBARA has set up in-house can factory, which has brought positive results in many ways," said Takao Tanaka, Chairman Factory Director Ebara Vietnam Pump Company Ltd.

With the implementation of new technologies, even more precise processing and finishing of various parts has become possible.

"Along with the expansion of the factory, we have been able to be more responsive to the customers' requests. On service and support, since now it is possible to handle three times of models than the current capacity, obtaining the customer's satisfaction is our goal. By doing so, we are aiming at the target of the number one share in Asia," said Tanaka.

With the operation of the new factory, EBARA Corporation has been aiming at large-scaled tasks and even more productive developments.