Vietnam is buzzing with activity, partly due to its joining the WTO (World Trade Organization) in January 2007. Morning in the capital city of Hanoi brings a cacophony of sound, with an unending crowd of motorcycles and car horns blaring. On March 10 and March 11, Sumitomo Corporation first sponsored a "Mass Media Journalist Site Tour" in Hanoi, hosting reporters from general newspapers, specialty publications, overseas news agencies and other media organizations.

The site tour schedule consisted of attending a safety prayer ceremony at the Sumitomo Corporation "Thang Long Industrial Park (TLIP )" currently under development, observing a signing ceremony formalizing a lecture series established at the Hanoi National Economics University (lectures on Management of a Global Corporation sponsored by Sumitomo Corporation), and tours of tenant corporations, Sumitomo Corporation-funded automobile production factories and logistics companies at "Thang Long Industrial Park (TLIP )," another industrial park developed by Sumitomo Corporation.

Greater Hanoi is an economic zone surrounding Hanoi City, situated on the large Red River delta in northern Vietnam. When the tour group arrived, the rice planting season for the rural area spreading throughout the delta was just coming to a close. The rice paddies had been flooded, and watching the farm folk plant in rice seedlings in straight, uniform rows brought to mind scenes of fields back in Japan.

TLIP , the original 274-hectare site developed on the far side of the bridge across the Red River is an environmentally friendly industrial park equipped with electricity, water, roads and other infrastructure. Sales began during 2000, and now 82 companies, mainly Japanese firms, have taken up occupancy. The word "thang long" means rising dragon, and TLIP has certainly become a "monodukuri" (manufacturing) center, contributing much to the development of the Vietnamese economy.

On the first day of the site tour, the media members enjoyed an informal breakfast meeting at the Hotel Nikko Hanoi with Sumitomo Corporation chairman Oka.

Sumitomo Corporation is growing its business in Vietnam across a diverse range of fields, from trading in crude oil, steel products, and chemical goods, to the development and management of industrial parks, production and sales of automobiles, logistics, power generation and more. During the breakfast meeting, Oka, who also serves as chairman of the Nippon Keidanren' s Japan-Vietnam economic committee, spoke passionately about his thoughts on Vietnam.

After breakfast, the group headed to TLIP , visiting tenant firms Canon Vietnam Co., Ltd. and Daiwa Plastics Thang Long (Hanoi). The group also visited Thang Long Industrial Park (TLIP, a Sumitomo Corporation company operating TLIP ) and Dragon Logistics Co., Ltd. Canon Vietnam Co., Ltd. produces inkjet and other types of printers, exporting a growing number of units. The Vietnamese are industrious and very good with their hands. It is said the finished product is extremely high-quality.

After concluding the corporate visits, the group observed the lecture series signing ceremony. The ceremony took place between Vice-Minister Pham Vu Luan of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and Sumitomo Corporation chairman Oka, with representatives from the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The signing ceremony concluded the day' s schedule.