Aeon Vietnam, a subsidiary of the leading Japanese retail and financialservices corporation Aeon, officially announced its presence in Ho ChiMinh City on Mar. 2.

Aeon Group’s CEO Motoya Okada, said he believes that Aeon will become one of Vietnam ’s leading retailers by 2020.

He highlighted the tremendous potential in Vietnam ’s retailmarket, which has already attracted a lot of foreign investors.

Aeon is always committed to building close relationships with localauthorities and communities and will make a significant contribution tothe country's socio-economic development, said Okada.

Aeon Vietnam has a chartered capital of 101 million USD and investment capital of 109 million USD.

It plans to begin construction of the 77,000 sq.m Aeon-Tan Phu Celadonshopping centre in HCM City in September 2012 and open it to thepublic in 2014.

The centre will provide space for asupermarket and 130 shops, including a third specially reserved forleading Vietnamese brand names, a third for Japanese outlets and theremainder for other international retailers.

AeonVietnam General Director Nishitoge Yasuo said that Aeon is planning tobuild 20 shopping centres up and down the country by 2020. Thesecentres will modernise Vietnam ’s retail industry and help withVietnamese exports to Japan .

The company will usethe latest technologies and organise training courses to train up thelocal work force for the domestic retail sector, he added.-VNA