Strongly Reforming Investment Promotion

The enforcement of Resolution 45/2022/QH15 on piloting several specific mechanisms and policies for Can Tho City development has opened up a lot of opportunities to attract investment flows and develop businesses. Facing new requirements and tasks, the city has adopted a more focused and effective approach in investment promotion and attraction.

Drawing more resources

Investment promotion and attraction and business support are of close concern to all levels of Can Tho City government. Can Tho Promotion Agency (CPA Can Tho) is established to concretize the above determination, best support businesses and investors to study and launch their projects and deal with their emerging problems in project implementation and reduce administrative procedures and contact addresses of governmental agencies for investors and enterprises.

CPA Can Tho is a non-business unit directly under the Can Tho City People's Committee. The agency is assigned to advise and propose the municipal government launch investment and trade promotion activities, trade fairs, advertisements, trade services and product roadshow events to introduce products made by domestic and foreign companies and support investment cooperation and trade promotion in Can Tho City.

In investment promotion and attraction, CPA Can Tho has worked with relevant bodies to develop and launch annual and 5-year investment promotion and attraction programs and plans. The agency has also advised and proposed the City People's Committee to implement investment support and incentivization policies and carry out support solutions, programs and policies, and cooperate with Vietnamese and foreign provinces and cities in investment promotion. Besides coordinating with related bodies to build a list of projects seeking investment funds, CPA Can Tho provides information on projects, investment laws, investment project establishment procedures and business establishment documents, opens representative offices and branches and assists local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to boost their development.

With seven years of perseverance and effort, CPA Can Tho has helped boost investment attraction in Can Tho City. From 2016 to date, it has attracted 50 domestic direct investment (DDI) projects outside industrial zones with a total investment fund of VND44,821 billion and 27 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with US$124 million of investment capital. Industrial parks have also licensed 38 DDI projects and seven FDI projects with US$407 million. To date, the city has licensed 414 projects with VND160,877 billion of registered investment capital. Despite being modest, these figures are also the foundation for the city to further reform its investment promotion and attraction and achieve better results in the coming years.

More practical and effective promotion reforms

In 2022 -2025, CPA Can Tho will launch workable investment promotion programs in the new context. First of all, it is necessary to step up research and assessment of capacity, markets, trends and investment partners to build a focus-based investment promotion program for each specific industry, field and partner based on socioeconomic development needs, local advantages and FDI flow movements. Investment promotion programs are strategic, well-connected, visionary and economical to the State budget.

CPA Can Tho will also eye large and multinational economic groups, especially those operating in high-tech agriculture, industry and supporting industries through investment promotion trips abroad, seminars and conferences on investment promotion. During the investment cooperation trip to Japan in 2019, CPA Can Tho awarded the Investment Registration Certificate of the US$14-million Seafood Processing and Manufacturing Plant to a joint venture between The Marine Foods Corporation of Japan and Nam Hai Export Food Co., Ltd of Vietnam. The 2018 Investment Promotion Conference, attended by over 600 business leaders, investors, domestic and international organizations and associations, introduced 64 investment projects with a total desired budget of VND124 trillion. So far, 14 out of 64 projects were licensed with a combined registered investment capital of VND32,450 billion. They registered to hire 1,038 ha of land.

To further entice investors from strategic markets such as Japan, Singapore and South Korea, CPA Can Tho advised the municipal government to establish a Japan Working Group or Japan Desk in 2017 to boost investment promotion in Japan; formed promotion channels with key partners, effectively attracted non-government investment fund, and organized government - business dialogues.

According to CPA Can Tho, Resolution 45/2022/QH15 is an important foundation for the city to tap its potential strengths and advantages to achieve rapid and sustainable development and create a driving force for the development of the whole Mekong Delta region. With its assigned functions and tasks, CPA Can Tho has been strengthening investment promotion, working hard to directly invite potential investors to invest in Dinh An - Can Tho waterway, in Mekong Delta joint agricultural cooperation, production, processing and consumption center in Can Tho City as well as in projects in Vinh Thanh and O Mon industrial parks, aviation logistics projects, Mekong Delta financial centers, and service and tourism centers in Ninh Kieu district.

Source: Vietnam Business Forum