The Prime Minister’s Instruction on several measures to boost new foreign investment wave into Vietnam is collecting ideas of relevant bodies and is set to be issued in early July.
To make full use of domestic and overseas advantages to create a new investment inflow wave from other countries, especially multinational firms, Vietnam needs strong solutions to make big shifts in attracting and using foreign investment sources in socio-economic development.
Accordingly, Vietnam will open trade promotion representative offices in important markets and increase investment promotion missions in Japan, the US and the EU. In the coming time, Vietnam will set up a specific investment promotion fund and introduce its investment call project list in the 2006-10 period to foreign investors.
In particular, in an attempt to develop a more favourable investment and business environment, ministries and branches will have to focus on big tasks. The planning work will concentrate on building development plans for sectors, fields or products in line with the Investment Law and international commitments. The lawmaking and policy-making work must put priorities on tax policies and investment incentive policies, which are hurdles to attract foreign investment, and on productions of instructive documents for the implementation of the new Investment Law. However, local governments are also recommended not to issue incentive and supporting policies which conflict with the State regulations.
The draft instruction also requires strong administrative reform in the direction of investment decentralisation and one-door policy. The administrative procedure process in investment attraction will be checked and resolutely settled all obstacles against enterprises in order to speed the investment licensing and project execution paces.
To ensure infrastructure for production and business activities, the first content mentions the sufficient supply of electricity for enterprises. In addition, the private economic sector will be encouraged to develop infrastructure system and houses for workers in industrial zones and export processing zones. Branches and local government should also focus on containing strikes, developing human resources and applying the same salary level for workers of all economic sectors.
According to economists, foreign capital flows are being pumped into developing nations, especially those with high economic growth. Influential groups are adjusting their long-termed investment strategies to distribute investment capital sources from several large countries to surrounding ones. This is a favourable condition for Vietnam, especially when the investment and business environment in Vietnam is being improved and the image of Vietnam and investor community’s concerns for Vietnam are also better. Vietnam has set a target to raise foreign investment proportion to a third of the total social investment capital within five years to go. The foreign investment attracted fields and localities will be expanded. The targeted investors are potential markets and world-leading economic groups.
In the 2001-2005 period, Vietnam attracted US$20.8 billion foreign investment capital. In 2005 alone, the country lured US$6.8 billion, up 50 per cent against a year earlier. By the end of 2005, a total of some US$50 billion foreign investment capital was injected into Vietnam.
VietNamNet
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