Speaking with reporters at the event’s opening ceremony held in Yokohama city, Kanagawa’s Governor Kuroiwa Yuji said the Vietnam Festival in Kanagawa was held annually during 2015-2019. However, it was postponed in the past two years due to COVID-19, and so was the Kanagawa Festival in Vietnam.
Instead, the Kanagawa-Vietnam exchange exhibition was organised this year to further bolster the sound relations between the two sides, he added.
Kuroiwa said the number of Vietnamese living and working in Kanagawa, the second-most populous prefecture of Japan, has seen a 2.5-fold increase since 2015. More businesses of the prefecture are keen on investing in Vietnam, the Governor stated.
For his part, Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam highly valued the holding of the event, which helped promote Vietnamese products and landscapes to Japanese friends.
He appreciated efforts made by Vietnamese localities, under the guidelines of the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Government, to study hardships facing Japanese firms operating in Vietnam caused by COVID-19, and devise prompt solutions to address such difficulties so as to ensure safety for workers and curb the spread of the pandemic.
