During a roundtable meeting between Japanese companies and city’s authorities on November 28, Ha said the hotline will be installed at customs as well as other city sectors.

Existing hotlines have numbers that are too long, and the new numbers will be short and easy to remember.

Setting up new hotlines is one of the measures being taken to attract more investors, including those from Japan.

At the roundtable, representatives from Japanese companies said many hotlines have been installed and are found useful, but they suggested that new ones be established to take calls about officials, such as tax or administrative staff, who break the law and ask for "unofficial" fees.

Japanese companies at the meeting said they had three major concerns: tax and customs, occupational safety and labour.

Most of them agreed that the city has helped them solve problems related to these issues, but they still need more support.

They said the city’s infrastructure, transportation and public security must be further improved.

The roundtable meeting is an annual event between HCM City and Japanese investors. It is organised with the main aim of listening to investors’ ideas and helping them solve problems.

This year, Japanese investment has equaled nearly one-third of total foreign investment in HCM City.

Currently, more than 1,400 Japanese companies are operating in the country, and more than half are based in HCM City.