Japan: Aeon sets sights on Southeast Asia
Aeon Co. on Friday officially launched a project to operate in the Vietnamese market.
Deflation, a declining birthrate and a rapidly ageing population have been shrinking Japan's domestic market, making other Asian countries, whose economies and populations continue to grow, more attractive.
Aeon President Motoya Okada said at a press conference Friday in Ho Chi Minh City: “Vietnam is a growing and vital market. We want to open stores in Hanoi and central regions of the country.”
Aeon's first store will open in the Celadon City district of Ho Chi Minh City, which is now being developed. The Celadon City complex is scheduled to open in 2014 with 130 tenant stores.
Aeon plans to proactively open stores in China and other Asian countries, too, and has set a goal of increasing its combined overseas sales to the level of its domestic sales by 2020.
An increasing number of Japanese retailers are entering Vietnam thanks partly to Hanoi's deregulation of foreign capital after the country joined the World Trade Organization in January 2007. Amid the Southeast Asian nation's strong economic growth, the number of middle-income earners in the country has been increasing dramatically.
Though Vietnam is a communist country, it has posted high economic growth of more than 5 percent per year since 2000 under its “Doi Moi” reform policy.
Vietnam's gross domestic product in 2010 was US$101.5 billion dollars. Its population as of the end of 2010 was about 86.93 million.
Source: www.chinapost.com.tw
