The Vietnam market will soon overtake us.

Please allow my strange English... because it is produced with Google translation. (Please do not laugh ;) my Japanese is also strange... ) The original article is?here.

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The Vietnam border is completely open to Japanese people.

I was on a plane to Vietnam at the end of July when Japan finally became the world's number one country for the number of coronavirus infections per day. From May 15, Vietnam temporarily suspended the coronavirus test requirement for those entering Vietnam, allowing them to enter without a negative or vaccination certificate. Before that, on March 15, visa exemption measures were resumed for 13 countries, including Japan. It means you can visit Vietnam as like before the Covid-19 pandemic came.

When I went to Paris in June, in order to get a boarding pass, I needed to show a certificate of 3 doses of vaccines, which is a requirement for entering Europe (if not, a negative PCR certificate within 72 hours, etc.) and a QR-code to prove that I submitted my travel to the EU traveller site. But just same as two and a half years ago, when I showed my passport at the check-in counter, my boarding pass was issued very quickly.

The reason for visiting Vietnam is to participate in a company trip for a research-consulting company that an acquaintance started in Vietnam 14 years ago. He gave me to make a short speech on the second day of training. In Vietnam, until the mid-1990s, the era of war and state-owned enterprises, the economy is growing now. As a result, the companies and people are both young,?so it is fairly common to have a "company trip" in Vietnam. (I thought it was a characteristic of Japanese companies) ?At the acquaintance's company, often hiring so many new employees had not been able to meet in person due to the coronavirus for two years. They rented a lakeside villa one hour from Hanoi city, and invited employees and their families, as well as employees who had left the company in the past, to conduct a company trip.?

ESG in Vietnam

Outside, kayaks are floating on the wonderful lake, but in front of young Vietnamese people (mostly in their early twenties) sitting quietly in the room, I gave a speech about ESG, such as corporate governance, climate change, and corporate disclosure, about for an hour. At this company, 30% to 50% of customers are Japanese companies considering expanding into Vietnam, and many of the customers and research destinations are SMEs. The president(my acquaintance)?told me that IFRS might be too difficult. Even so, they probably have heard of “ESG”, and I thought there would be initiatives for the environment and human rights, so I started talking about this theme. Sooner I found that their interest in ESG might be higher than their president, who was absent for over two years in Vietnam. In particular, awareness of SDGs and sustainability seemed to have spread already.

Vietnam has been working on a corporate governance code since 2016 and was introduced in 2019. One-third of the board of directors is required to have independent outside directors. Vietnam was therefore set to host the annual Asia Corporate Governance Round-Table in 2020, co-hosted by OCED and local regulators. However, the event was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemics. Young employees wanted to know whether other countries' governance codes were limited to listed companies. (In Vietnam, it is applied to unlisted companies with more than 100 shareholders)?They told me that the sustainability reports are also recommended by the governance code. Every time I said a word, questions and opinions popped up, and halfway through, I was made to laugh wryly, saying, "Everyone, you know a lot more than your president."

Vietnam, which has natural resources, shipping many agricultural and marine products, and many parts factories, etc., has many companies incorporated into the supply chains of overseas global large companies. So I told them, “Even unlisted companies and small companies will not be recognised as suppliers if they do not consider the environment and human rights. The companies that you advising, need to care about global trends, not only Vietnam regulation”, and I felt a serious look in their eyes.

The next day, I saw an exhibition of EV cars and motorcycles made in Vietnam at a mall in the city. It seems that EV buses are already running well. (Even though it is a country where oil can be obtained) Though I have heard them vaguely on the news, I was surprised to see it with my own eyes here. Vietnam is absolutely moving forward. While I had been stuck in Japan for two and a half years, my senses might have dulled.?

How about Japan?

Such Vietnam has now suppressed the number of new coronavirus infections to about 1,500 per day, (End of July) and has begun to accept visitors for tourism and business unconditionally. I often saw European tourists enjoying the city of Hanoi. In Japan, it is viewed as a once-in-a-century infectious disease, but in Southeast Asia, some kind of infectious disease occurs at least once every ten years. During the company trip, the young people enjoyed playing the game of musical chairs and the spoon relay against each other at an event called "team building", which was like a training camp for energetic college students. I thought about young Japanese people…. I strongly felt that now is the time that even Japan must unconditionally accept visitors from overseas, even if there are difficulties, and strongly restart economic activities under the coronavirus with other countries.