3:26:42 PM | 7/8/2005
Local authorities in Vietnam's southern economic center Ho Chi Minh City have pledged to continue improving the local socio-economic environment to boost foreign investment, local officials said in an annual meeting with foreign firms yesterday.
The city will boost infrastructure upgrades by beginning work on construction of a new airport and expansion of its international sea ports, officials from the local People’s Committee said.
Priorities will be given to high-tech industries to develop with an aim to reorganize the city’s industrial structure. The city will also offer more investment incentives for companies that invest into supporting industries, officials said.
Since the last year’s meeting, the city has made significant progress in improving its socio-economic climate.
Action programs have been undertaken to upgrade the city’s transport system to tackle traffic jams, officials from the Department of Planning and Investment said. Procedures for foreign investors to enter Ho Chi Minh City at the International Tan Son Nhat Airport have also been simplified.
Also, task forces have been established to provide necessary information and consultancy to foreign investors.
The city has also scored in simplifying administrative procedures, especially with investment licensing, foreign investors said.
Despite progress, however, the city still has a lot of work to do to improve the socio-economic and investment environment, foreign investors said.
The city needs to make administrative procedures over the establishment of representative offices of foreign companies more transparent and simplified.
Local authorities should make clear over what representative offices are and are not allowed to do, an official from international accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers said. He said he hoped the government’s decision to limit the number of foreign workers in a company would soon be lifted, and foreign investors should get fairer treatments like local firms.
Entry procedures at the airport should be further simplified to impress foreign investors, and telecoms charges should be reduced, investors said.
Telecoms charges in Vietnam are still much higher than other regional countries, investor said. Investors also complained about rampant violation of intellectual property rights in the country, saying it is one main reason that makes foreign investors hesitant to invest into Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh City attracted 91 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with combined registered investment capital of US$161.6 million, raising the total number of FDI projects in the city to 1,695 capitalized at US$11.85 billion.
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