Actively Removing Bottlenecks in Attracting FDI to Tourism Sector

Binh Thuan province has much tourism potential. With a coastline of 192 km, the province owns plentiful coastal tourism resources, beautiful beaches, clean environment, warm climate and sunny weather throughout the year in accordance with the needs of winter escape in beach resorts of international visitors. Besides its excellent natural resources, Binh Thuan is dubbed the "Green Sea - White sand - Sunshine"; and also known as home to many diverse human resources with many historical - cultural tourist attractions. Since 1995, the Binh Thuan is known as the "Capital of Resorts" with the industry growth rate of 30 percent / year. Every year, Binh Thuan tourism welcomes a relatively large number of visitors; typically in 2013, the province welcomed 3,525,000 arrivals, achieving 107 percent of plan, up 12.1 percent compared with 2012. The international tourists mainly come from Russia (18.7 percent), China (6.56 percent), Germany (4.06 percent), South Korea (3.11 percent), France (2.26 percent), America (2.16 percent), Australia (1.84 percent), the UK (1.58 percent), the Netherlands (1.21 percent), and Thailand (1.19 percent); the rest are from other countries.

 

 

Currently the province has 402 valid tourism projects (excluding 38 investment projects in tourism services) with a total land area of 8,202.8 ha level and total registered capital of VND63,739 billion investment; in which 32 FDI projects with a total land area of 3,100.5 ha level and total registered capital of VND25,640.8 billion. So far there are 9 projects under operation (excluding 15 investment projects in tourism services). Typical FDI projects are Victoria Hotel & Resort, Coco Beach Resort, Scuba Diving Vietnam, Vietnam France tourist area, Sailing Club tourist area, White Sand tourist area which have contributed to promoting the development of tourism industry in the past year; increased source of revenue for the province, created jobs and income for local people and contributed to the create Mui Ne tourism brand in particular and Binh Thuan tourism in general on the world tourism map.

 

The current inadequacy is that the types of investment are not diversified. The main types of investment projects are tourist complexes or seaside resorts, mainly developing available resources but not paying attention to eco-tourism, and lacking entertainment type. Currently, large scale foreign funded projects from 200-500 ha are evenly distributed across the coastal districts of the province; however, the number of tourism projects in operation is yet small; some projects have large areas, but slow implementation over the years directly affects the efficiency of FDI attraction. From the above obstacles, Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is working with other departments and local investors to accelerate the implementation of the project. It is expected that in the period 2015 – 2020, there will have additional 10 large scale projects in operation, such as the Ocean Valley Tourist Complex, Delverton ecology tourist area, Yasaka Phan Thiet tourist area, etc. In the future, they will contribute to the development of tourism, providing revenue for the state budget, as well as local jobs.

 

In addition, the Planning Scheme for tourism development in Binh Thuan province in 2020 and vision to 2030 approved by Binh Thuan Provincial People's Committee on September 12^th 2012 will be the basis for Binh Thuan to plan and attract large scale projects with diverse types associated with sea tourism such as high-end resort centre, MICE; international sports tourism complex on sea, on sand, on the mountain. The Provincial People’s Committee (PPC) issued Decision 13/2010/QD-UBND dated March 17^th 2010 specified sequence, procedure, and responsibility of investors and state management agencies in addressing project files with the capital out of the state budget in the province of Binh Thuan. The issuance of this decision has created favourable conditions for administrative reform, improving the efficiency of investment attraction of the province. The remaining problem is the need to have mechanisms and incentive policies for FDI investors who invest in eco-tourism based on nature, associated with local cultural identity and large scale recreation zones. The province will issue policy, guidance and timely remedial measures to help implement project as schedule to develop tourism in localities having potential to develop tourism in province.

 

Currently, Binh Thuan has become one of the major tourist centres of the country. Tourism development has brought to Binh Thuan various types of sports associated with sea travel such as windsurfing, kite surfing, parasailing, scuba diving, sailing, motocross and dunes sports. Many sea sports were introduced into Binh Thuan, initially forming the movement of training and organisation of international tournaments. On the basis of the project "Development of marine tourism, islands and coastal Vietnam 2020" by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has advised Binh Thuan PPC on the scheme to build Binh Thuan into national centre of tourism - marine sports; contributing to concretize socio-economic development planning in Binh Thuan province in 2020, promoting economic development and changing service-tourism structure.