Over recent years, the investment attraction activities of Lam Dong have achieved remarkable results, paving the way for the provincial socio-economy to rise significantly. Contributing to the province’s overall success, the Investment Promotion, Trade and Tourism Centre of Lam Dong plays an important role in promoting the province’s image to businesses and investors. Vietnam Business Forum had an interview with Mr Vu Van Tu, Director of the Centre, on its promotion activities in the province. Huong Giang reports.
Could you tell us some of the highlights of your activities in recent years?
Performing the task assigned by the province, our centre has organized many activities to accompany businesses and investors: In the field of investment promotion and enterprise support, the Investment Promotion, Trade and Tourism Centre of Lam Dong, as the lead agency in the implementation of investment promotion and enterprise support, in recent years has organized several activities to promote the investment potential and opportunities in Lam Dong, organizing and participating in many national and international forums of investment promotion as well as business support activities. Those activities have shown good results for many investors have come to study and invest in Lam Dong.
In the field of trade, the Centre has sent out invitations and notices, organized as well as supported businesses in the province in participating in trade events, fairs and exhibitions, both at national and international levels, also conferences and seminars on trade promotion in other localities throughout the country, also skills training courses on trade promotion for corporate managers. We also organized and supported businesses participating in survey programs to look for new markets at home and abroad. In the field of tourism, the centre has joined conferences and forums of tourism stimulus held annually in major markets such as Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City and many southwestern provinces. The centre also participated in various cooperation programs of tourism development with other localities. So far, Lam Dong has signed cooperation programs with: Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Kien Giang, Binh Thuan, Da Nang and Dak Nong. For the upcoming time, the Centre will continue our surveys and go on to sign cooperation tour programs with several other eastern and southwestern provinces. We have implemented collaborative programs with airlines to introduce the province’s potential in investment, trade and tourism to visitors and businessmen at home and abroad (advertising on flights of Vietnam Airlines and VietJet Air). Besides, the centre has taken part in organising tourism survey trips (Famtrip) in localities considered as large markets and receiving Famtrip delegations from other provinces. We see this as an opportunity for discussion and introduction of tourism potential. We have also regularly participated in fairs, exhibitions held by localities such as the Tourism Festival, the International Tourism Fair, ITE Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi Tourism Fair. The centre has provided information and support for tourists through the Tourist Information Support Centre, an agency under the Investment Promotion, Trade and Tourism Centre of Lam Dong.
Though seen as a province with good investment attraction, the current results are still not commensurate with the potential and inherent advantages of Lam Dong. Could you please point out the difficulties and limitations in attracting investment?
Lam Dong has advantages in land and climate to attract investors to the province. As for the attraction of foreign investment: As of October 2014, there have been nine investment projects certificated by the Provincial People’s Committee (PPC) and the Management Board of industrial complexes, with total registered capital of US$24.63 million; 26 investment certificates adjusted. As for the attraction of domestic investment: there have been 26 investment projects certificated by the PPC with a registered capital of VND774.03 billion, area of 590.44 ha.
Despite those encouraging achievements, capital attraction activities in Lam Dong province are still experiencing difficulties and limitations such as: remote geographic location, infrastructure developed asynchronously; unsatisfying quality of human resource education and training; the provincial incentives not attractive enough to draw in investors; limitation in budget and funding for land clearance; slow progress of many investment projects, wasting local resources; most of the projects are of small scale; and attracting investment does not harmonize with economic and social fields. There are many investment projects in tourism and agro-forestry; but there are too few in the field of agro-forestry product processing, education, health, culture and sports.
So can you tell us the direction and measures to promote investment in the future?
To increase the efficiency of investment attraction in Lam Dong in the future, it’s crucial to understand the directions and to synchronously implemented those following measures: As for orientation: Focusing on attracting investment in sectors of high priority such as infrastructure development, especially road traffic; Developing agricultural production towards applying more high technology; For tourism, calling for investment in the sectors of services and entertainment; For industry, focusing in agricultural product processing and post-harvest preservation, forming a linkage chain covering from production and processing to distribution and consumption.
As for measures and solutions: Continuing to improve the environment of investment and business as well as support investors; Focusing on the reform and simplification of administrative procedures, continuing to implement the one-stop-shop mechanism to create favourable conditions for businesses and investors, both domestic and foreign; assisting businesses and investors in removing difficulties, creating the maximum favourable conditions on land, capital access and premise clearance to accelerate projects’ progress; Improving infrastructure and paying more attention to the training of human resources; Ensuring transparency in provisions relating to investment; Complying with the policies on developing and support small and medium enterprises; Diversifying channels broadcasting information on attracting investment; Coordinating with representative agencies of foreign countries in Vietnam as well as Vietnam's agencies abroad to promote investment potential and gather information on investment demand to decide on partners and fields of investment attraction.
We will continue to update changes in policy and laws on investment, completing investment promotion materials, collecting information on projects calling for investment; Strengthening coordination among departments, agencies and localities in investment promotion. Close coordination among relevant departments, agencies and localities is important to timely remove difficulties, creating favourable conditions for investors in studying environment and implementing investment projects; Promoting the mobilisation of socialised funds for the implementation of investment promotion; Strengthening the checking on projects’ progress, cancelling certificates of projects progressing slowly without good reason; and calling on central ministries and departments to support and co-organize events of investment promotion, both nationally and internationally.
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