Challenge - explained

Japan Bank For International Cooperation (“JBIC”) is a policy-based financial institution of Japan, and conducts lending, investment and guarantee operations while complementing Japanese private sector financial institutions. JBIC’s mission is to serve as an Export Credit Agent (“ECA”) facilitating the exporting activities of Japanese companies to Vietnam. As Japan and Vietnam are having closer economic collaboration than ever, JBIC’s role will also become even more critical. In Vietnam, JBIC has traditionally been working with the Government to provide loans to power plants project (via EVN) as well as infrastructure projects (such as Long Thanh Airport). Given that Japanese companies have much competitive advantage in providing advanced technology in the field of healthcare and agriculture, JBIC would like to understand the operating environment of firstly the healthcare sector to understand how to best support the Japanese companies. Therefore, this market research would serve as the guiding document for JBIC’s strategy in Vietnam.

Solution:

FiinResearc aimed to acquire data on healthcare sector from various reliable sources, as well as conduct various field survey to have the most accurate quantitative assessment of the market. We also interviewed various healthcare stakeholders, including Department of Health Services Administration from MoH, Department of Information Technology from MoH, Department of Insurance Supervision from MoF, hospitals at different levels, and medical devices companies providing services at Vietnamese hospitals. The interviews would help us get an in-depth understanding of the practical environment of each healthcare segment, competition dynamics and its potentials.

Results:

JBIC was provided wholly information on current situation of Vietnam healthcare market to support their Japanese companies with investment decision. The Vietnamese healthcare market has been seeing foreign investors inject trillions of đồng in merger and acquisition (M&A) deals. Later in 2020, Hậu Giang Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company (DHG) became a subsidiary of Japan’s Taisho Pharmaceutical Co Ltd after the latter acquired an additional 20.6 million shares in the former to increase its stake to 50.78 per cent.