Increased Effort for More Effective Investment Promotion and Business Support

Thai Binh Investment Promotion and Development Support Center, which officially came into operation on April 1, 2022, has quickly stabilized its personnel, actively advised the Provincial People's Committee to coordinate relevant agencies and localities in investment, trade and tourism promotion and business support consulting in a bid to effectively help achieve the goal of making Thai Binh a favorable destination for domestic and foreign investors.

Flexible reforms, effective performance

Director Do Van Lan said: Assigning the special importance of investment promotion, the center has excellently researched and evaluated potential, markets, trends and investment partners; and organized communications, promotion and introduction of investment environment, policies, opportunities and connections.

Thai Binh delegation pays a working visit to the Vietnamese Embassy in Belgium during the European Investment Promotion Program, May 2024

Accordingly, the center keeps regular contacts and information exchanges with central agencies, overseas Vietnamese representative agencies, foreign representative agencies in Vietnam, and representatives of foreign trade associations in Vietnam to grasp investment needs and investment trends. The center edits and updates documented information on investment promotion; coordinates with the Department of Planning and Investment to adjust and supplement the list of priority projects to attract investors in Thai Binh province in 2021-2025 according to Decision 3316/QD-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee on December 7, 2020.

Regarding domestic investment promotion, the center successfully organized the "Conference to announce the Thai Binh Planning and Investment Promotion in 2024" and the New Year Meeting with domestic and foreign businesses. In addition, it hosted working sessions with giant firms like BYD (China), Zenith (South Korea) and Marubeni (Japan). At the same time, it participated in investment promotion conferences organized by central agencies and provinces to introduce local potential and strengths and attract investment capital to Thai Binh.

To boost foreign investment promotion, the center successfully led working delegations to promote investment in Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, the Netherlands, France and Belgium. There, the working delegations organized investment promotion conferences to foster traditional cultural values, potential, advantages and orientations on investment attraction in the province.

“Organizing working groups to explore and promote investment abroad is one of the important measures to seize opportunities and attract new investment,” Mr. Do Van Lan emphasized.

With the above efforts, Thai Binh province attracted VND7,769.9 billion of investment capital in the first six months of 2024, 2.2 times higher than that in the same period in 2023. Specifically, the province licensed 63 production and business investment projects with a total registered capital of VND6,339.4 billion, 1.8 times higher than that in the corresponding period, and three housing development projects with VND1,430.5 billion. The foreign direct investment (FDI) fund reached US$232.4 million. The province witnessed 528 new corporate formations with a registered capital of VND5,049.1 billion in the period, down 10.5% and 18%, respectively; and 222 new branches, representative offices, and business locations, up 11.6%. As many as 171 companies resumed operations; 367 companies announced temporary operational suspension; and 70 companies were dissolved.

Going with businesses and investors

In addition to its effective investment promotion, to facilitate businesses in finding information about the investment and business environment, fields and projects seeking investment capital, Thai Binh Investment Promotion and Development Support Center has increasingly applied information technology; coordinated in building an integrated information database system, fully and promptly updated planning, mechanisms, investment incentive policies, legal documents and instructions on relevant websites.

Over the past two years, the center has effectively operated the business support fanpage on the Zalo application. Besides, the Provincial People's Committee has focused on reviewing and simplifying processes to reduce the time needed to handle investment administrative procedures to provide the greatest convenience for organizations, businesses and individuals.

In 2023, Thai Binh established a special working group responsible for removing obstacles for businesses, investors and projects in the locality, chaired by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee. As the standing agency of the working group, the center has effectively guided and supported basic information for investors; consulted and supported investment incentive policies, investment procedures, connected infrastructure investors, and resolved difficulties and obstacles for investors and businesses.

In particular, to facilitate overseas investment promotion, the center has advised the Provincial People's Committee to establish a working group to promote and support investment attraction in South Korea (Korea Desk Thai Binh) and the Thai Binh Korean Investment Promotion Office in Seoul.

To realize the goal of "making Thai Binh a fairly developed province by 2025, catching up with leading localities by 2030 and becoming a developed province in the Red River Delta by 2045" as stated in the resolution of the 20th Provincial Party Congress, Thai Binh Investment Promotion and Development Support Center will continue to effectively advise the Provincial People's Committee to implement solutions to create breakthroughs in attracting investment and building the image of Thai Binh as a safe and attractive destination for domestic and foreign enterprises, he said.

In particular, the center will continue to reform and perfect investment promotion processes and activities in a professional and effective manner; and build a focused investment promotion and attraction program to tap local advantageous industries and fields. It will selectively attract foreign investment, target high-tech projects from partners in South Korea, Japan, the United States, Europe and other markets; and prioritize projects with new, advanced technology, green investment, high added value, modern management and strong connectivity.

The center will reform and diversify investment promotion and considers it a key task; improve the quality of localized investment promotion to support investors in resolving difficulties and problems in project implementation; speed up administrative reform and digital transformation, build a safe, transparent, and open investment and business environment, and create trust for investors and businesses when coming to Thai Binh.

The center will organize training, improve investment promotion capacity and skills for organizations and individuals, thus contributing to improving the quality of human resources.

Since then, it will continue to boost its role as a powerful assistant for the government, create solid progress in building an open investment environment, and contribute to the rapid and sustainable development of Thai Binh.

By Ha Thanh, Vietnam Business Forum