Van Don Developed to Attract Foreign Investment

 

Gifted by abundant and diverse natural resources and attractions such as Halong Bay, the world natural heritage, along with rich labour resources, Quang Ninh has advantages over other provinces to promote the local strength in the process of international economic integration, extension of the external economic relations, and advantages of external resources to build economic development. By taking the advantages and available potentials under the directions of the central leadership with coordination and support of effective of the ministries, international friends and the business community, Quang Ninh has obtained significant achievements on all aspects of economy and society.

 

Faced with the difficulties of the domestic and world economies, Quang Ninh, along with other provinces thorough the country, has strived to overcome the difficulties and challenges. The security and political situations have been strengthened and maintained and the annual economic growth is always kept at a high level compared with the national average growth. In particular, the Party and the government of Quang Ninh always take priorities of creating favourable investment and business environments to attract investment and support the business development because those are important implications to promote economic development of Quang Ninh. In addition to continuously reformed administrative procedures to improve the quality of activities of the public sector, annually the provincial leaders also spend time attending the conference dialogues with the business community and investors to collect recommendations, difficulties and problems of enterprises to come up with timely and efficient solutions. According to Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) in 2013, Quang Ninh has gained 16 steps on the competitiveness levels to be the 4th place out of 63 provinces and cities in the country. It is not only the most visible manifestation of the efforts of the Party and the provincial people's Committee, but also the encouragement, recognition and appreciation of the business community, domestic and foreign investors for their capacity quality of economic management and efforts of reforms of the public administration and business environment of Quang Ninh province in the past year.

The requirements for creating innovative and groundbreaking developments for its strong fields, Quang Ninh has proposed a plan of developing two strategic areas: Van Don and Mong Cai based on the extroverted Special Economic Zones (SEZs) model. The new model is associated with streamlined management, efficiency and effectiveness, favourable administrative procedures and regulated by typical laws in accordance with international practices to attract capital, technology and management methods of the developed countries. On the basis of the guidance of several leaders of the Party, government as well as experiences of the developed countries, practices in Vietnam, opinions of international organizations, professionals, managers, scientists, and entrepreneurs in the provinces and abroad and especially, local researches of economic and political and natural conditions of Quang Ninh, the province has reported to the Politburo and Government for permissions of selecting Van Don as the place for a new model of the SEZs.

 

As we all know, Van Don is a key economic zone of the Red River Delta with strong impacts on the region. The area is known for its strategic transit point between East Asia to Southeast Asia, a link between ASEAN and China. It is located at the "two corridors and one belt" economic cooperation area of Vietnam and China and at the corridor of Nanning, Singapore and inter-regional cooperation Northern Gulf areas. Van Don is being planned for development of the coastal economic areas of the Northern Gulf and of the Hanoi- Hai Phong- Quang Ninh economic triangle as well as being an important urban area of the Red River delta. It is the largest archipelago of the Northern Region, with an area of 2,171 km2 (551 km2 of land and 1,620 km2 of sea water) and known for diverse topography and ecosystems located in the world nature heritage of Halong Bay- Bai Tu Long Bay. Van Don, which is located within an island district with one administrative unit and separated from the mainland island, includes smaller isolated and pristine islands with low population density. This is consistent with the criteria of selecting a secluded area to pilot a new development model. The Van Don Economic Zone is selected to develop the luxury tourist complexes project including casino and other categories. Accordingly, Vietnamese people will be allowed to participate in the casino activities in Van Don, which will be one of the key motivation projects for the SEZs.

 

With the potential advantages and diverse conditions, Quang Ninh makes proposals of targeting and developing Van Don to be an attraction for investment, especially foreign investment in construction and development of large-scale luxury tourist complexes which include casino, manufacturing and supporting industries such as financial services, banking, securities, technology incubators, software and other industries of high-technology, clean technology, ecological agriculture, mining, agricultural farming and seafood to support high-end tourism services.

 

Obviously, to build a successful Van Don Economic Zone requires a huge capital resource; therefore, Quang Ninh welcomes all businesses and investors to become pioneers and accompany Quang Ninh to lay the foundation for a new driving force for a new development of the province.