Blessed with huge potential for pulling investment capital for developing tourism, hydropower, agriculture, forestry and construction materials, Dien Bien province has focused its forces to drawing investment capital and promoting advantages to boost socioeconomic development. Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Mr Nguyen Quang Sang, Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Investment. Duy Binh reports.
How do you assess the role, potential and advantage of Dien Bien province over other northern upland and mountainous provinces?
Land is a great advantage of Dien Bien province as over 500,000 ha, or 55 percent of natural area, is unused. This is a great potential and advantage for the province to invest in forestation and livestock husbandry. Besides, with fertile soil, Dien Bien province is considered the granary of the Northwest. If it receives worthwhile investment and scientific and technological application, it will become a leading rice producer and exporter in the country. Meanwhile, the province can develop livestock farming in Muong Nhe and Si Pa Thin areas. Furthermore, it has a lot of historical and cultural relics, particularly Dien Bien Phu Battlefield. This is a plus for the province to develop tourism.
In addition, Dien Bien shares the borderline with China and Laos with many national border gates like Tay Trang (likely to be upgraded to international border gate), Pa Thom, Muong Loi and A Pa Chai. These border gates enable the province to develop its economy and exchange with other nations. Dien Bien Airport is being upgraded and expanded. Besides, the province also has rich potential for hydroelectric development.
The province attracted 67 investment projects with a total registered capital of over VND16,300 billion, of which 24 projects with VND3,400 billion have been put into production.
To improve its competitiveness, the province launched a scheme to improve its provincial competitiveness index (PCI) ranking. Dien Bien is building service centres and industrial complexes to support investors. The province is calling investment capital for its strong fields, including tourism (historical tourism, cultural tourism, ecological tourism), hydropower investment, forestation and forest product processing, and industrial crop planting (coffee, tea, etc.).
Compared with other provinces in the region, Dien Bien does have certain disadvantages. As it is quite far from major economic centres of the country, transport costs are high here. Infrastructure investment in industrial parks is slow because of the complex terrain. Furthermore, the quality of human resources is low; most are manual workers.
The Northwest Investment and Social Security Promotion Conference in Son La took place when the economy had showed signs of recovery and businesses had stabilised business operations. This is a great opportunity for Dien Bien and Northwest provinces to promote investment. Would you mind telling us which fields Dien Bien province will introduce to investors to draw their investment capital?
Defining tourism as one of major industries to promote local economic development, the province has exerted a pull on investors to unlock this potential. As a mountainous province, Dien Bien has focused its resources on infrastructure construction and development. The province also lured investors to exploit resources like mineral water, soft coal, limestone, black rock, granite, iron ore and non-ferrous metals, build and operate hydropower plants, and plant forests and process agricultural and forestry products.
What has Dien Bien province done to assure investors when they invest in the province?
Dien Bien has spared no effort to improve the investment environment and create favourable conditions for investors.
To effectively execute Decision 529/QD-UBND on issue of plans for the implementation of Resolution 19/NQ-CP, Dien Bien determines to build an open, transparent investment environment, supports companies to do business, and pledges to realise its business support commitments.
Regarding administrative procedure reform, the province will grant business registration certificates within five days from the date of receiving valid documents, investment certificates in seven days for uninspected projects (15 days stated in the law), and 10-14 days for inspected projects (down from 20 days).
Land-use planning will be widely published. The province will also support investors to carry out site clearance.
Dien Bien will also announce socioeconomic development plans, land-use planning, economic zone planning, industrial park planning, infrastructure construction planning, and human resources training.
How has the province supported existing investors to do business in the locality?
The province has built a scheme for improving the provincial competitiveness index (PCI) to enhance its competitiveness. Every year, the provincial government holds meetings with businesses and investors to learn about their situations and provide better support. The province requests local governments to provide the most favourable conditions for investors to carry out their projects. It also assists investors to seek markets and train the labour force.
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