Binh Duong - Increasingly Attractive for Investors

 

In recent years, Binh Duong province has made impressive progress in attracting investment capital. Binh Duong province has grown into a most favoured destination for foreign investors in Vietnam. Mr Le Viet Dung, Deputy Director of Department of Planning and Investment of Binh Duong province, said that FDI attraction in Binh Duong province in the past five years is surprising. The province has licensed 846 FDI projects with a combined registered investment capital of US$7.3 billion in the five-year period, totalling 1,966 projects from more than 40 countries and territories, worth nearly US$13.5 billion to date.

 

Impressively, Binh Duong province is witnessing increased investment in highly competitive hi-tech products and service projects. The largest projects mostly involve manufacturing, service, real estate and high tech. For instance, South Korean Kumho Asiana Group’s tyre manufacturing project with investment of US$360 million; Thailand’s SCG Siam Cement Group high-quality package producing projects with up to US$140 million in the first phase. Besides, Binh Duong province has also attracted many retailers and real estate investors to build supermarkets and shopping centres. Binh Duong New City has been kicked off, with on-going projects including international hospitals, international universities, Mapletree and Guocoland high tech zones, Metro commercial centre.

 

Binh Duong is one of the provinces with completely invested infrastructure. It has 28 synchronously invested industrial zones, 24 of which are in operation. The province also carries out trade promotion at national and international levels. Hence, the province maintains high growth in FDI attraction, currently accounting for 8 percent of the national figure. From now till 2020, the province plans to set up 11 industrial zones, raising the total to 39 with a total area of nearly 20,000 ha.

Constant innovation

Binh Duong’s success in FDI attraction is attributed to tireless efforts and continued innovation. The first is the effort to actively implement fast and sustainable development programmes in specific periods for the attraction of foreign and domestic investment capital, and the restructuring of industries in association with improving technologies and supporting industries. Besides, the province is stepping up research to improve FDI attraction, promptly resolve new difficulties facing investors, and create favourable conditions for investors to accelerate their project implementation. Also in the process of attracting foreign investment, Binh Duong always ensures transparency of and access to business information.

 

Specially, the province always takes every opportunity to attract investors and boldly exploits geographical advantages, accelerates public administration reform, and creates a good environment. Thus, it wins the heart of investors. Many foreign investors are not only satisfied with the business environment, but also speak highly of local potential and the investment environment. Mr Paik In Ki, Chairman of Korea Investment Association in Binh Duong Province, said, good industrial infrastructure, perfect policies, an investor-friendly investment environment, plus the wholehearted support from provincial authorities make foreign investors in general and Korean investors in particular feel secure and confident when they spend their money in the province. These important elements ensure the success of investors when they decide to stay in this economically potential land. "Within its capacity, the Korean Investment Association in Binh Duong Province will try its best to continue to heighten its bridging role to boost the understanding of South Korean investors about Binh Duong as well as improve the quality and value of investment capital in the province," said Mr Paik In Ki.

Mr Le Viet Dung said Binh Duong province would continue improving its investment environment and attracting more investors into industrial parks; and focus on promoting infrastructure development, improving training systems and expanding traffic systems to better serve investors. One typical project now underway is My Phuoc Tan Van road, which costs more than VND3,500 billion. This crucial road connects key points in the province with international airports and seaports and will open up new opportunities for sustainable and continuous economic development of Binh Duong Province. Another is the Mien Dong International University invested by Becamex IDC. The nearly complete university, which covers 26.4 hectares and costs up to VND1,700 billion, will provide high-quality human resources for businesses in the province and beyond. Besides, investors are building international hospitals, metro lines, and urban areas adjacent to industrial parks. These projects will contribute significantly to the realisation of the target of attracting US$5 billion in the next five years from 2011 to 2015.