In recent years, Soc Trang province has made great efforts to utilise its local potential and advantages and create an open investment environment. In an interview with reporter Quoc Hung, Director Mai Phuoc Hung of Soc Trang Department of Planning and Investment stressed: “To attain better achievements, Soc Trang is making every effort to create the most favourable conditions, employ all resources and improve the investment and business climate to produce better investment attraction, which is considered an important economic driving force to create breakthroughs in socioeconomic development.”
Could you briefly describe the outstanding achievements of Soc Trang province in attracting investment, especially FDI, in 2006 - 2010?
Under the guidance of the Provincial People’s Committee, investment promotion authorities at all tiers have intensified their operations and achieved encouraging results. In 2006 - 2010, the province attracted 240 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects valued at more than VND26,467 billion. Main investment fields were aquaculture, seedling supply, agricultural and aquatic processing, construction and services. An Nghiep Industrial Park alone has housed 37 investment projects worth VND3,330 billion since it officially began operation in 2005. They mainly focus on fish processing, animal feed production, home appliance production and package production.
Soc Trang province has not attracted much FDI capital because it is located relatively far from major cities, the market scale is small, purchasing power is weak, and labour quality is low. To date, the province licensed only six FDI projects with total registered investment capital of more than VND208.110 billion (over US$10 million). As most foreign-invested projects in Soc Trang province have small scales, the implementation progress is quite slow.
What will the province plan to do overcome those difficulties and enhance investment to foster socioeconomic development?
To improve investment and mobilise all resources for social and economic development to attain socioeconomic growth of 12 - 13 percent per annum from 2011 to 2015 and income per capita of US$1,800 by 2015, we will focus on promoting information dissemination about the province and increasing the popularity of the province’s image. Besides, Soc Trang is about to complete a handbook on investment promotion and a DVD titled "Soc Trang - Potential and Investment Opportunities" to introduce investors to the province’s investment opportunities. In addition, we will improve the quality of our websites to strengthen connectivity with website addresses of relevant central and local agencies in the country and international website addresses we trust.
Moreover, the province will train staff to boost their skills for attracting investment capital, their foreign language proficiency and their adaptability to international integration process. Furthermore, Soc Trang will improve the workforce quality to meet the demand of investors, speed up execution of cooperation programmes with other provinces, organisations and individuals around the world to approach and select investors, partners as well as potential investment areas to boost the effect of investment attraction, especially FDI capital in the province. The province will continue accelerating administrative procedure reform and create more favourable conditions for enterprises to do business in the province.
More importantly, we will focus on mobilising all investment resources to upgrade and complete economic and service infrastructure systems to catch the fancy of investors. At the same time, we will create and strengthen the consistency of industry development planning and of provincial and district planning. And finally, we are strengthening cooperation programmes with major cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho and south-western and south-eastern provinces to approach domestic investors. It will also proactively contact foreign investors through the support of ODA providers, consulates general, Southern Foreign Investment Centre and others.
We hope that, with the comprehensive and synchronous implementation of the aforementioned measures, Soc Trang will improve its investment environment to become a priority destination for domestic and international investors.
What are specific orientations for investment attraction in 2011, and what will Soc Trang province do to satisfy investors’ requirements for human resources?
Based on local potential, strengths and development demands, Soc Trang will continue to improve the investment environment and enhance its competitiveness in attracting FDI in 2011. The province will step up administrative procedure reform to simplify investment licensing and intensify post-licensing support and management. We will provide all conditions necessary to attract investment capital for development of supporting industries, labour-intensive industries and high-tech industries. We will also draw investment capital in high-quality human resource development and urban development. Additionally, we will direct investment capital flows into important fields like industrial zone development, seaport development, transporting route and warehousing development, and external trade expansion. We will call for investment capital for Dai Ngai and Tran De general ports, and the coal feeding port for Long Phu thermal power centre. We will also attract investment capital to develop sea-oriented and countryside-oriented tourism. We will prioritize projects related to residential and urban area construction, houses for low-income people, commercial centres, tourist sites and routes, hospitals and schools.
We will pay more attention to improving the quality of human resources. At present, Soc Trang has many vocational training schools and centres to train skilled workers to serve investors. In addition, each district has at least one vocational training centre and they can train some 24,500 workers a year. Besides, according to investment incentive policies, the province of Soc Trang will grant companies financial support of VND300,000 for each recruited employee they train.
The Mekong Delta Economic Cooperation Forum 2011 is planned to take place in Ca Mau province. What do you expect from this forum? What is your message for investors at the forum?
The Mekong Delta Economic Cooperation Forum 2011 is an open cooperation programme to enhance cooperation and linkage among regional provinces and cities and to boost international cooperation. Therefore, this forum is an opportunity for Soc Trang to introduce its image, potential and strengths to Vietnamese and international investors. Besides, the province can strengthen cooperation in investment and economic development with other provinces and cities to exploit available resources more efficiently and generate sustainable development for regional localities. In addition, through this forum, Soc Trang has the opportunity to contact foreign investors to direct their investment projects to the province. Besides, Soc Trang province will host the second Rice Festival in November 2011. The Mekong Delta Economic Cooperation Forum 2011 will be a good chance for Soc Trang to introduce and invite businesses and investors to attend this festival.
Also through this forum, Soc Trang wants to send a very sincere message to investors: “Soc Trang always wants to go with and support businesses and investors to do business in the province for mutual benefit.”
Vietnamese
