The Japan Retailers Association has met with officials of Vietnamese C.T Group to discuss cooperation and retail opportunities in both countries.

The goal of the cooperation is to bring famous Japanese products into Vietnam, the Saigon Times news website reported Friday.

C.T Group is now the exclusive distributors of many famous brands in Vietnam, including Calvin Klein, Laneige, Lolita Lempicka and Kipling. It is now operating a shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh District, with two more projects under development, also in the city.

The Japanese retailers also expressed interest in helping C.T Group expand to the Japanese market. The Vietnamese company, also a real estate developer, is building a trade center in Osaka.

The Japan Retailers Association, established in 1978, is a group of supermarkets, shopping centers, wholesalers, restautants and other retail-related companies.

With its growing population, Vietnam is an attractive retail market, A.T. Kearney said last week. The firm anticipates that Vietnam’s market size will expand to US$113 billion by 2012.