Over the past years, Bac Lieu province has been active in settling weak points which caused difficulties and expense for investors. Thanks to its efforts, in 2010 the southern province gained impressive results in investment attraction. Reporter Ha Linh interviews Director of Bac Lieu’s Department of Planning and Investment Le Thanh Dung.
Could you talk about the local investment achievement in 2010?
Bac Lieu made a number of achievements in economic development in 2010, particularly in the field of investment attraction. The success was attributed to the provincial party committee’s firm instruction, plus the timely and efficient governance of the people’s committee and close cooperation of all agencies in reforming administrative procedures relating to investment.
Last year, the provincial people’s committee approved 33 investment projects out of 39, totalling VND10.688 trillion. Among them, 22 projects, valued VND9.055 trillion in total, have completed procedures for investment licenses. Of the total, 17 projects valued VND7.618 trillion are now underway, including some big ones such as Bac Lieu Tower with VND319 billion; wind power plant with VND4.323 trillion; Hoang Phat urban area with VND711 billion; Nha Mat resort and tourism site with VND350 billion; and a branch of Thanh Vu general hospital with VND1.5 trillion. The province has also granted investment licenses to two more projects.
How does Bac Lieu pursue administrative reform and what are investment priorities?
Generally, the priority policies for investors of Bac Lieu province are like those of other regional localities because of following common regulations, for example priorities in the fields of taxation, land rent, support for projects inside and outside industrial parks, site clearance, vocational training, advertisement and trade promotion.
However, being aware of the province’s limitations in investment attraction, such as being located far from economic zones, the point of departure at a low level, the rate of trained labourers and development of infrastructure remaining low, the Bac Lieu province people’s committee has defined administrative reform in the field of investment as a necessity. Thus, provincial leaders have instructed agencies to streamline procedures of business registration and investment licensing; curbing costs and time for enterprises and investors (market attendance cost) as well as the heavy bureaucracy and harassment of investor’s representatives (unofficial cost). In 2010, the province’s efforts were appreciated by the community of enterprises, contributing to raising Bac Lieu’s Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI).
Which fields in Bac Lieu are investors interested in, and why?
Over the past time, most investors poured their capital into the fields of real estate (office and commercial complexes, new urban areas, social housing projects); tourism facilities; export seafood processing; and socialized projects on health and education. In fact, Bac Lieu has succeeded in setting up an information channel for investors advertising its potential.
In terms of real estate, Bac Lieu is in major need of houses to serve the resettlement demand from current and future projects. The young city of Bac Lieu now has especially high demand for decorating and developing urban areas to achieve the rank of Urban Grade 2, thus the construction of office buildings is necessary.
Tourism is also a strength of Bac Lieu as the province has a lot of cultural and historical sites like Vinh Hung ancient tower, Xiem Can pagoda, Uncle Ho temple, Noc Nang field site as well as religious sites including Buddha's altar and Tac Say church. With a coastline of over 56 kilometres and a system of mangrove forests, bird grounds and fruit gardens, Bac Lieu is full of potential to develop eco-tourism. In addition, the land is home to a famous character, namely Bac Lieu, and Da Co Hoai Lang folk music.
Regarding export seafood processing, Bac Lieu has huge potential in providing materials, thanks to being be favoured by nature. Besides, the local labour force is plentiful and suitable to the requirements of investors. Thus, the efficiency of this sector is very high.
Priority policies of the State in order to socialize the health and education sectors also helped to attract investors to Bac Lieu because the network of social infrastructures here are weak while the demand of people is huge.
What methods have provincial leaders offered to lure more investment in the future?
Given the importance of exploiting available potential for economic development as well as overcoming difficulties in investment attraction, the province’s 14
th party congress (term of 2011-2015) has defined the necessity to carry out comprehensive and practical solutions to raise the Bac Lieu PCI and boost investment attraction. The solutions are rechecking, adjusting and supplementing sector schemes towards sustainable development; completing legal procedures for key projects like Ganh Hao Economic Zone, Ganh Hao Sea Port, thermo power centre; continuing to build infrastructure, particularly transportation projects; giving favourable conditions for trade exchange; training human forces based on local demand of investors; completing infrastructure for Tra Kha industrial park and promoting the construction of new industrial parks of Lang Tram and Ninh Quoi.
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