Dong Nai Industrial Parks: Speeding up Administrative Procedure Simplification

At present, Dong Nai province has 29 industrial parks, including 22 with fundamental infrastructures and seven in the process of clearing construction sites. In general, the progress of building infrastructures in industrial parks in Dong Nai province in 2008 and the first seven months of 2009 was slow although the pace was speedier than in 2007, thus failing to meet the demand by investors. In 2008, industrial park development companies invested some US$37 million to build infrastructures in industrial parks, an increase of 40 per cent from 2007 (with some US$26.39 million). In the first seven months of2009, industrial park developers spent around US$11.53 million to build industrial park infrastructures.

The total investment capital for industrial park development reached US$322.023 million as of July 2009, completing 61.37 per cent of the plan. Besides, economic recession has forced many investors to slow down their investment activities. However, difficulties in administrative procedures also put a brake on infrastructure development. In fact, investors have lax cooperation with local authorities in advancing their projects.

Public administration reform and administrative procedure simplification are always of top concerns of provincial authorities as the province wants to draw more investors into industrial parks. The Dong Nai Industrial Zones Authority is advancing the implementation of single window policy and applying IT to public administration activities. The authority is applying the “one door regime” and has adopted the ISO 9001: 2000 quality management system since 2003. Since July 2007, the single window policy has been applied to all units. Investors can receive investment certificates, tax codes and seals at one public administrative unit.

The authority also examines public administrative procedures to eliminate unnecessary ones, simplify complex ones and propose amendments to irrational regulations.

In 2008, the authority continued with the single window policy, examined and proposed eliminating some procedures. The receptionist division was very quick at receiving investment applications and delivering investment licences. All documents are processed in line with the ISO standard. Up to 99 per cent of documents are solved in time. Delayed cases are usually because the authority has to seek approval from higher authorities. Besides, the authority has cooperated with the Department of Taxation and the Police Force in granting investment certificates, tax codes and seals for 30 projects. All projects documents are completed before the time.

Also in 2008, the Government issued the Decree No. 29/ND-CP dated March 14, 2009 on export processing zones, industrial parks and economic zones. Accordingly, the Dong Nai Industrial Zones Authority is added more tasks such as labour, construction planning and environment. On May 27, 2009, the authority issued regulations on administrative procedures and solving processes in line with the “one door” regime. The authority has added four new procedures in addition to five existing ones. All procedures are certified to satisfy ISO 9001:2000 standard by the Vietnam Directorate for Standards, Metrology and Quality.

In 2009, the authority examined and summarised administrative procedures as required by the Project 30 of the Government and the Plan No. 713/KH-UBND dated January 30, 2009 of the Dong Nai People’s Committee. DIZA has examined procedures involving labour, investment and environment. Accordingly, the authority has implemented 220 administrative procedures. At the first examination, the authority listed 155 administrative procedures to be removed, 13 new procedures to be added and 78 procedures to be kept. At the second examination, the authority listed six procedures to be eliminated, 11 new procedures to be added and one to be simplified. In total, the authority is implementing 82 administrative procedures.

In 2009, the Vietnamese economy suffered a recession. Besides, global financial crisis shrank FDI flows into Vietnam and will directly affect the result in 2009 - 2010. The economic woe directly sank investments into industrial parks in Dong Nai province in 2008 and in 2009. From the start of the year to mid-August, industrial parks in Dong Nai province attracted a total of US$228.74 million, including US$43.2 million fresh capital and US$185.5 million from operating projects.

However, another impact is the policy of sorting out investment projects. To date, about 60 per cent of leasable land in industrial parks (6,002.53 ha) has been occupied. Thus, Dong Nai province plans to attract environment-friendly projects and does not grant investment licences for enterprises in industrial parks without central wastewater treatment facilities. Consequently, the result of investment attraction was affected to a certain extent.

In 2008, Dong Nai province sent a delegation to Australia to introduce investment opportunities in the locality. The province planned to organise investment promotion conferences in Sydney and Melbourne in June 2009 but Australian partners proposed Dong Nai to pick up another time due to global economic crisis.

The authority keeps regular contacts and provides sufficient information about local industrial parks to foreign investment promotion agencies in Vietnam. These organs often instruct potential investors to explore the business climate in Dong Nai province. The authority has sent introductory documents on Dong Nai province and local industrial parks to AmCham to introduce to investors in the US. Additionally, industrial park developers also usually organise trade promotion activities through their own channels.