The active adoption of investment incentive policies combined with administrative procedure reform has initially created an opening and attractive investment environment in Dak Lak province. Mr Nguyen Viet Tuong, Director of Planning and Investment Department of Dak Lak province, said, the province will do its best to actively implement many positive and feasible solutions to attract FDI capital more effectively.
Could you tell briefly about FDI attraction in the province in the past time? What measures will the province adopt to promote the result of FDI capital attraction in the coming time?
Currently, Dak Lak has seven foreign-invested projects with a combined capital of US$105.07 million, of which six projects worth US$95 million were licensed from 2006 to 2010. FDI projects are mainly involved in agricultural processing, animal feed production, biofuel production and export flower growing. To attract world-leading companies from big markets and to diversify investor interests, Dak Lak has built an external economic project, competitiveness index improvement project, and economic diplomacy project.
Together with introducing projects of boosting investment attraction effectiveness, accelerating investment implementing progress and improving the provincial investment environment, Dak Lak will actively apply many critical solutions. In particular, the province will lay emphasis on perfecting FDI incentive mechanism and policies, prioritise fields of local comparative advantages, projects of labour-intensive employment and advanced technologies, and projects in industrial zones and economic structure-influencing projects. In addition, the province will actively support and facilitate foreign investment projects to get investment licences. The locality also has specific investment attraction plans and programmes in Vietnam and in the world which focus on target sectors, projects and investment partners.
In a locality of potentially economic development like Dak Lak, the formation of investment coordinates is very essential. What do you think about this?
The construction of investment coordinates reasonably suits particular social and economic conditions and natural conditions of each locality in particular and the entire province in general and ensures sustainable development. Fully aware of this, the Dak Lak social and economic development master plan from now to 2020 approved by the Prime Minister in the Decision No. 87/2008/QD-TTg and the Dak Lak social and economic Development Plan for the 2011 - 2015 period defined following economic corridors of the province:
+ National Road 14 economic corridor focuses on developing agricultural and forest product processing, hydropower, trade and service. Clean and high-tech agriculture is developed in outskirts of urban zones along the National Road 14.
+ National Road 26 economic corridor focuses on agricultural and forest product processing, quarrying, construction material production, metal recycling, and consumer goods production. Inter-regional commercial, tourism and economic cooperation will be developed with Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen and Ho Chi Minh City.
+ National Road 27 economic corridor links Buon Ma Thuot City - a large tourist and service centre in the province - with the country’s tourism centre of Da Lat. The corridor also has rich potential for developing trade, services and tourism.
+ A corridor along the Dak Lak - Phu Yen traffic route links the two central coastal provinces, improving commercial exchange and economic cooperation with regional provinces and Cambodia.
+ Son Dong Road is designed to invest in socioeconomic development, goods exchange and economic cooperation with neighbouring provinces of Lam Dong and Phu Yen, create opportunities for remote regions of M'Drak and Krong Bong districts to develop economy and society.
+ Developing districts in the western side of Ho Chi Minh Road
+ A corridor along the Dak Lak - Phu Yen traffic route links the two central coastal provinces, improving commercial exchange and economic cooperation with regional provinces and Cambodia.
+ Son Dong Road is designed to invest in socioeconomic development, goods exchange and economic cooperation with neighbouring provinces of Lam Dong and Phu Yen, create opportunities for remote regions of M'Drak and Krong Bong districts to develop economy and society.
+ Development of districts in the western side of Ho Chi Minh Road
Together with economic development corridors are three socioeconomic spaces based on sub-regions as follows:
+ Central Sub-region: Including Buon Ma Thuot City, Cu M'gar, Buon Don, Krong Pak, Krong Ana, Cu Kuin and Lak districts. This sub-region is oriented to promote socioeconomic development and is built to become a leading economic region of the province with industry, services and tourism being main components of the economy.
+ Northern Sub-region: Including Buon Ho town and Krong Buk, Krong Nang, Ea Sup and Ea H'Leo districts. This sub-region will focus on developing agricultural processing, forest product processing, animal feed processing, etc.
+ Southern Sub-region: Including Ea Kar, M'Drak and Krong Bong districts. This sub-region is oriented to develop agricultural processing, forest product processing, trade and service networks.
Thus, investment coordinates are defined as above mentioned.
In spite of positive changes in investment, Dak Lak province has not been able to fully tap its strengths and potentials. How will the province improve this situation?
Although there are positive changes in investment activities in Dak Lak, results are not really commensurate with local potentials because of weak infrastructure and unfavourable landlocked geographic location. Human resources for industrial production and services still lack professional skills. Particularly, investment promotion activities are not really effective and the access to potential investors is limited.
To boost investment efficiency, Dak Lak province will firstly focus on overcoming three disadvantages mentioned above. Specifically, to cope with infrastructure limitations, the province will invest to upgrade traffic infrastructure to link with the rest in the Central Highlands and the country. It is proactively lobbying the government to invest in a road linking Dak Lak with Phu Yen province. This road will connect the border gate of Conditions Rue (Vietnam) - Chi Miet (Cambodia) and Cambodia will open a road from Co Nhec district (Mondunkiri province) to link with this border gate, creating an uninterrupted road from Cambodia to Vung Ro Port, Phu Yen province of Vietnam. Dak Lak province will review, adjust and announce infrastructure investment plans till 2020 to attract capital. At the same time, it will mobilise all available sources for infrastructure development investment like State Budget and ODA with prioritised areas being irrigation, water supply, sanitation, electricity and traffic.
As regards human resource development, to improve the quality of the local workforce and implement the human resource development policy, the province completed the human resource development plan to submit to the Ministry of Planning and Investment for consideration and instruction. With respect to investment promotion, the province will make changes to activities by actively studying, introducing and inviting domestic and foreign potential investors to do business in the locality. It also formulates short-, medium- and long-term investment strategies and defines fields and partners in need of investment to boost efficiency. At the same time, the locality continues reforming administrative procedures in investment attraction and carries out a project to improve the provincial competitiveness index (PCI) for the stage from 2011 to 2015.
Reported by Kien Trung
Vietnamese
