Adopting Innovative, Flexible Approach to Investment Promotion

In response to the changing global economy and intense competition for foreign investment, Vinh Phuc has revamped its investment promotion strategies, leveraging competitive advantages to enhance success for investors. The province also supports businesses in maintaining and expanding their operations.

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Flexible investment promotion

Anticipating foreign direct investment (FDI) flows shifting to Vietnam, including Vinh Phuc, the province has changed its methods and solutions to attract investment and its approach to investment partners by introducing many policies and carrying out specific projects like the strategic investor attraction project to 2030, the SME support project and local business - FDI business connection and cooperation project towards global supply chains.

Accordingly, the Department of Planning and Investment, the Vinh Phuc Industrial Zones Management Board and investment promotion agencies have actively approached and developed specific reports on large corporations with projects that match the province's investment attraction plan, including Compal, LG Vietnam, Google, Apple, Dell, IKEA and YCH Group.

Since 2014, Vinh Phuc province has implemented an annual investment promotion plan, announcing a list of targeted investment projects for specific periods. These programs now extend beyond traditional markets like Japan and South Korea to include potential markets such as Europe, the US and Australia. The province is also positioning itself to attract investors relocating from China and Taiwan, as well as those from countries participating in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

Overseas investment promotion is not organized on a large scale or with general targets but targeted at specific industry, field and project, depending on strengths of each country. The province aims to selectively attract investment projects, limit land-intensive projects and projects with little added value while resolutely rejecting energy-intensive projects and projects that pose environmental risks.

Moreover, the province always pays attention to local investment promotion by promptly directing solutions to difficulties and obstacles for existing investors and businesses; take good care of investors with projects in the locality, help businesses feel secure in production, business and investment expansion, while investors and businesses themselves help the province entice other investors.

In addition, many forms of business support have been introduced such as promoting administrative reform, conducting quarterly surveys to capture situations and difficulties of local companies through independent channels, organizing surveys on business satisfaction with governmental agencies at all levels; supporting industrial zones to complete infrastructure, create clean land, connect traffic, train human resources and call for investment capital.

Vinh Phuc province will coordinate with infrastructure investors of industrial parks in Binh Xuyen, Vinh Tuong, Song Lo and Lap Thach districts and Phuc Yen city to develop investment attraction programs in line with the province's master planning.

Focus on strategic investors

With its changes in investment attraction methods, solutions and approaches to investment partners, Vinh Phuc has completed the investment attraction task in the entire 5-year term (2021-2025) with US$2.5 billion of FDI funds. As of August 2024, the province had 1,318 projects, including 476 FDI projects with more than US$8.4 billion of investment capital and 842 DDI projects with VND143 trillion (US$6 billion).

In the year to date, many strategic investors that lead domestic and foreign automobile, motorbike and electronic supply chains have arrived to explore the investment environment and industrial real estate and proposed support and cooperation in energy, net zero commitments and green investment to the province. In particular, in August 2024, Korea-based Signetics signed a cooperation agreement with CNCTech Group (Vietnam) to carry out a US$100-million semiconductor factory project on 50,000 square meters of land. This is a high-tech development breakthrough in Vinh Phuc province while it opens up many job opportunities and makes positive contributions to local comprehensive economic development.

Signetics is affiliated with Young Poong Group, one of the largest conglomerates in South Korea, established in 1949. The group mainly operates in three fields: mining, electronics and book trading. Signetics provides semiconductor assembling and testing services. The company's main products include Flip-Chip, MCM (multi-chip module), BGA and FBGA which are important components used to make memory chips, GPUs and TVs. The company is currently a vendor for many large corporations such as Samsung and SK Group.

Previously, Signetics advocated seeking investment opportunities in Vietnam. Given advantages in natural conditions, traffic and preferential investment attraction policies, Signetics picked Vinh Phuc to locate its US$100-million facility, specifically in Ba Thien I Industrial Park, Binh Xuyen district, and chose CNCTech Group as its strategic partner for factory construction.

To attract more strategic investors and make Vinh Phuc one of the largest industrial centers in the country, the province is completing plans, especially construction plans and industrial park infrastructure plans; developing specific incentive policies for FDI projects to maximize the State's incentive policies; and strengthening contact and connection with central agencies and embassies to call for investors. The province will regularly participate in conferences, forums, and exhibitions because this is an opportunity to meet with domestic and foreign investors and companies and introduce the local investment and business environment.

Furthermore, Vinh Phuc will actively remove difficulties and obstacles for existing investors, improve the effectiveness of local investment promotion, especially existing partners that are doing business in the province to prove its reputation to companies seeking for business expansion and reinvestment.

Indeed, Vinh Phuc is facing many opportunities to attract a new wave of strategic investors in addition to supporting and encouraging stronger investment expansion from current strategic investors. In 2023-2030, the province hoped to attract US$2 - 2.5 billion of FDI capital and VND20,000 - 25,000 billion of DDI capital, and entice up to five more Fortune 500 multinational corporations to invest in the province.

By Mai Lien, Vietnam Business Forum