9:53:26 AM | 24/5/2012
By promoting local potentials and advantages, Tay Ninh province has recently made impressive progress in all aspects, particularly investment attraction. Mr Nguyen Manh Hung, Director of Tay Ninh Department of Planning and Investment, said: “Efforts to draw investment, reform public administration and create an open investment environment have helped Tay Ninh attract many large-scale investment projects expected to give a strong boost to industrial growth in the years to come." Thanh Lam reports.
Could you please tell us about the investment attraction programme in 2012? What are the results?
Located in the southwest of the country, Tay Ninh province is the traffic hub and overland gateway to the Mekong Delta region and plays a strategic position in trade and tourism with Mekong subregion countries. Tay Ninh lies on the mainstay development space of the region, with Ho Chi Minh Highway on the vertical axis and Trans-Asia Road and National Road 22 on the horizontal axis. It possesses favourable conditions in resources and traffic and abundant natural resources. By tapping these advantages, Tay Ninh province successfully attracts many investors, becoming a favourite address of domestic and international businesses.
In 2011, the province’s total capital investment, both domestic and foreign sources, reached US$671.6 million. Particularly, the province granted investment licences to 34 projects with a total capital of US$610.3 million and allowed 11 projects to increase their registered capital by US$61.3 million. By that time, Tay Ninh had 205 foreign-invested projects with an aggregated registered capital of US$1,428.1 million, of which 163 projects were in operation with a registered capital of US$819.7 million, and 289 domestic investment projects with a registered capital of VND34,808 billion (US$1.6 billion), of which 134 projects capitalised at VND15,762.7 billion went into operation.
In the first quarter of 2012, the province drew US$49.2 million of investment capital, both domestic and foreign sources. Specifically, seven projects were granted certificates to invest US$36.7 million and four projects were permitted to raise their capital by US$12.5 million. FDI capital reached US$11 million in the three-month period. By the end of the first quarter, the province licensed 206 FDI projects with a total registered capital of US$1,431.7 million, of which 167 projects with US$882.2 million started operation. Foreign investors disbursed as much as US$772 million on their projects, equalling 53.9 percent of their total registered capital.
Domestic total investment was VND842 billion (US$38.2 million) in the three-month period, up 1.4 percent year on year. At the end of the first quarter of 2012, the province had 288 domestic investment projects with registered capital of VND30,129.3 billion, of which 140 projects worth VND16,585.3 billion went into operation. Vietnamese investors already spent VND14,900 billion on their projects, equal to 49.7 percent of their total registered capital.
In addition to available advantages, Tay Ninh still has disadvantages in transport infrastructure and human resources that reduce the attractiveness of the investment environment. How is the province resolving this problem?
Currently, technical infrastructure outside centralised industrial zones is not synchronous and it fails to meet development requirements. Specifically, the road connecting Bourbon - An Hoa Industrial Park with National Road 22, as well as Road 782 passing Phuoc Dong Industrial Park, is upgraded and expanded belatedly, affecting the investment environment and inhibiting big investors from investing in industrial zones. Meanwhile, recruiting skilled workers in such fields as mechanics, electronics and high professional levels remains very difficult. This is a reason for the reluctance of investors when they survey the investment environment in Tay Ninh.
To cope with these shortcomings, we are focusing on developing infrastructure systems for industrial zones and expanding industrial parks for future requirements of investors. In addition, to attract investors, Tay Ninh is committed to applying open and preferential policies and investor support policies, providing information on planning and investment projects, building industrial zone-connecting infrastructure and roads to support investors to carry out their projects favourably. Plus, Tay Ninh applies one-door administrative mechanism in industrial zones to save time and money for investors.
Drastic measures against incapable investors and belated projects serve as an important factor to enhance investment efficiency. How has Tay Ninh shown its resolve in this regard?
While opening the door very wide and applying open time-efficient policies, Tay Ninh also expresses its displeasure with incapable investors and sluggish projects to cleanse the investment environment and offer new opportunities for other investors.
Actually, the quality of some projects in the province is quite low. Garment and footwear projects are in the majority. In the long term, their contributions to the provincial economy are not high. Therefore, besides efforts to improve efficiency, the province will attract investors with downstream processing and manufacturing projects rather than offshore outsourcing, to improve production value and enhance competitiveness. In the coming time, investment licensing will be more selective, focusing on high technology, supporting industries, agricultural processing, and industries with high export value and high social welfare.
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