Quang Nam Province Tapping Potential for Investment

 

Together with priority for planning sea tourism, industrial and economic zones. hydro power projects, the province calls for local and foreign investments in socio-economic development. In the past 10 years, Quang Nam has attracted US$130 million in ODA for rural infrastructure and poverty reduction such as RIDEF project by UNDP/UNICEF, CBRIP project by WB, resettlement project by OPEC, rural public works by ADB and JBIC, water supply and environment projects by AFD, Finland and Norway, school project in storm-affected areas by Japan and Norway, hospital project worth US$35 million in Chug Lai economic zone by Republic of Korea.

 

With advantages in air port, sea port and railways for industrial development and increasing favorable investment policy and environment, Quang Nam can attract more and more local and foreign investments: from VND60 billion of registered capital in 1997, to VND13,899 billion in 2007 and VND14,016 billion in the first half of 2008. Most notable projects are Truong Hay auto assembly plant (US$75 million in registered capital and US$77 million in increased capital), Dong Tam tile plant (investment capital increased from VND198 billion to VND416.6 billion), glass factory of Vinacomin, Prime tile plant (VND678 billion), Ethanol factory (VND407 billion), A Vuong hydro power station (US$250 million) operating by the end of 2008, Dac Chung hydro power project (VND4,547 billion), CP and Intimex pulp plant (VND1,175 billion), Palm Garden tourist centre of Phuoc Thinh company (US$17 million), etc.

 

FDI increased from 12 projects worth US$198 million in 1998 to 72 projects and US$690 million in 2007 and additional US$76 million in the first 7 months of 2008. The investment has promoted the industrialization and modernization in Quang Nam, increasing the ratio of industry-service from 53.2 percent in 1997 to 73.9 percent in 2007, industrial value from VND623 billion to VND5,260 billion (24 percent a year). The total export value in 2007 was US$723.5 million (up 28 percent a year).

 

The first advantage is the location bordering Da Nang city to the North, Sekong province (Laos) to the West, Quang Ngai province and Dung Quat economic zone to the South and the East Sea to the East and one-hour flight from Da Nang and Chu lai airports to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. The province is most favourable for road and rail transport as well as shipping. 125 km of coastline with white sand beaches and blue sea together with two world cultural heritages and hundreds of relics and landscapes are ready for development of tourism. It has also great resources for building materials and hydro power. It has 56 training centres, high schools and colleges for human resources development.

 

In the coming years, combining internal and external strengths, Quang Nam can become an industrial province with developed tourism by 2015-2020.

 

Quang Nam highly value investments at home and abroad. We apply the government policy to mobilize investments from all sources including overseas Vietnamese. We have called on them and considered it as important resources for socio-economic development. So far, many overseas Vietnamese have returned and participated in the economic development. Most of them are intellectuals and can be good managers for technology transfer and human resources development.

 

Besides industry, Quang Nam is developing tourism with sizable investments. Overseas Vietnamese returned home with insufficient capital could not compete with foreign investors in medium and large-sized projects. They could serve only as consultants match-making Vietnamese and foreign businesses or doing small businesses. Therefore, Quang Nam hopes that overseas Vietnamese would cooperate with local businesses in investment projects, especially in R & D, technology transfer, training, IT, financial and banking as they are quite strong in those sectors. With world economic integration, national treatment is applied to all foreign investors. For overseas Vietnamese, it is more in the sense of their attachment to the homeland.