Defining investment capital, particularly FDI capital, as an important resource to boost growth and economic restructuring, Quang Ngai province has focused on improving the healthy investment environment to attract more resources for socioeconomic development goals in the past years. From this effort, FDI capital attraction in the province has been beyond expectations. To learn more about this success, Vietnam Business Forum has an interview with Mr Nguyen Dang Loc, Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Department of Quang Ngai province. Cong Luan reports.
How is FDI capital attraction into Quang Ngai province since it was re-established more than 25 years ago (July 1989)? How are the production and business performances of FDI firms? How do they contribute to local socioeconomic development and restructuring?
Quang Ngai province had 36 effective FDI projects with a total registered capital of over US$4,105.63 million, mainly concentrated in Dung Quat Economic Zone, as of the end of the second quarter of 2015. Specifically, Dung Quat Economic Zone attracted 24 FDI projects with a combined registered capital of US$3,955.06 million; industrial parks housed seven FDI projects with US$66.08 million; and five additional projects capitalised at US$84.49 million were located outside industrial zones.
Quang Ngai province has become one of most attractive destinations for FDI capital in the central region. FDI capital creates leverage for socioeconomic development, increases local budget revenue and generates jobs. The constant increase of investment projects in Quang Ngai province over the years has created new manufacturing capacity for the local economy. Thanks to investment activity, the province has managed to develop a number of relatively large-scale industries with relatively high development levels like mechanics, petroleum and electronics. That creates favourable conditions for restructuring the economy towards industrialisation and modernisation; promoting the transfer of technologies of machinery, equipment, knowledge and management experience; and ensuring social security. Local investment attraction has also positively impacted such areas as personnel training, market-oriented economic development, and cultural, health and education development.
Not only generating revenue for the province, FDI companies also produce exports and ship "Made in Vietnam" goods to the world, thus helping popularise the quality of Vietnamese product brands in the international arena.
Business support policy is said to play an important role in drawing investment capital in general and FDI capital in particular. So, how has the province realised this policy through specific programmes and actions?
In addition to existing advantages in geographic location, natural conditions and synchronous technical infrastructure systems, Quang Ngai pulls investors because it always pays attention to building a healthy, open and conducive investment and business environment for investors. With the motto "Accompanying businesses", the provincial leaders are willing and ready to accompany investors, actively support and facilitate them from the stage of investment opportunity searching to the stage of premise construction. This is evidenced by the province’s decisions on the formation of business support bureaus to directly assist and handle problems arising from specific projects to secure investors when they carry out their projects in the locality. Quang Ngai has also issued attractive investment incentive policies and supports, based on the Government’s provisions, for supporting industries, agriculture, rural development and the maritime economy. Besides, the province has given priority to accelerating administrative procedure reform, enhancing the provincial competitiveness index (PCI), and strengthening oversight management while strongly changing investment promotion methods in order to tap local potential and advantages to achieve breakthrough development for each stage.
How has the province introduced to other countries its investment environment to attract FDI inflows?
To effectively attract FDI capital, Quang Ngai often organises working delegations to other countries to promote and invite foreign investors into environment-friendly manufacturing fields, particularly fields that manufacture import alternatives. The province has also encouraged the formation of business cooperation between foreign and domestic companies. Specifically, in 2014, we organised an investment promotion delegation to Japan with the aim of calling for Japanese investors and small and medium enterprises to invest in Quang Ngai. We also participated in many activities and programmes led by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Embassy of Vietnam in Japan, in conjunction with Japanese organisations, where we directly met and contacted some Japanese localities and enterprises. These activities also enabled Quang Ngai to establish sister relations with localities in Japan which would help the province to promote and introduce investment opportunities to Japanese investors.
With the aim of promoting and calling for investment, Quang Ngai is organising more effective investment promotion delegations to potential markets to lure investment capital, while providing detailed information about projects in the list of investment attraction projects, translating documents and printing documents to serve investment promotion.
Business investment promotion will be gradually changed, based on the clear definition of key sectors, fields, suitable localities, strategic investors and motivating projects. Provincial leaders will work directly with investors to introduce projects in line with local development plans and investors’ interests. More importantly, we will focus on enhancing professionalism in investment promotion, and creating favourable conditions for investors to understand and bring their projects to the province, thus making Quang Ngai a reliable destination for domestic and international investors.
With the goal of become a basically industrial province in 2020, Quang Ngai needs to pick up the pace of attracting investment capital, especially FDI. So, what are specific FDI attraction strategies for the 2016-2020 period?
To attract more investment projects, particularly FDI projects to give a stronger boost to local socioeconomic development, Quang Ngai always puts a great premium on improving the investment environment, raising PCI Index, and turning potential into opportunities for investors. In the coming time, the province will place Dung Quat Economic Zone at the heart of its investment attraction strategy, renovate investment promotion activities, draw FDI capital for petrochemical, manufacturing, supporting industry, urban infrastructure, industrial zone infrastructure, port infrastructure and high-tech agriculture projects from Singapore, Japan, South Korea, India and other nations.
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