11:55:43 PM | 22/7/2013
Seven MOUs were signed by Yen Bai City and organisations and businesses including the Korea Chamber of Commerce & industry (KCCI), the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, the Central Council for Vietnam’s Business Associations, Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (VINATEX), Hoa Sen Group, Ho Guom Garment Corporation, Cuong Thinh Thi Investment and Construction Joint Stock Group at the conference on investment promotion in Yen Bai City. Recently held in Hanoi by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and Yen Bai’s People’s Committee, the conference with the theme "Yen Bai - Investment Potential and Opportunities" drew the participation of nearly 500 delegates representing central and local ministries, international organisations, embassies, businesses associations, business community at home and abroad, etc.
Yen Bai City is considered the centre of politics, administration, economics, culture, science and technology of Yen Bai province and has become a driving force for the development of the northwest area as well as an important hub of traffic of the area.
Recognised as an economic leading force of the province of Yen Bai, in many recent years, Yen Bai city has maintained relatively high annual economic growth of 14.96 percent. Particularly in 2012, the city reached a growth record of 16.8 percent. Economic structure has been shifted positively with the proportion of industry-construction, services, agriculture and forestry of 47 percent, 49 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively. Budget revenues reached an average increase of 20 -25 percent a year, in which exports reached US$20 million. Income per capita was VND40 million per person a year. The total development investment capital of the area in the period of 2006 -2010 reached over VND5,000 billion.
According to Mr Nguyen Lam Thang, Chairman of the city’s People's Committee, despite the fact that Yen Bai is considered one of the sub-regional centres of 14 Northern mountainous provinces and key economic centre of six Northwest provinces, Yen Bai, characterised as a mountainous province, is still facing many difficulties in investment in socio-economic development. Therefore, the local authority has policies to attract investment and facilitate businesses to invest and do business in Yen Bai. In particular, the trans-Asia highway linking Hai Phong - Ha Noi - Lao Cai - Yunnan (China) which is expected to be completed by 2014 will connect Yen Bai with major economic centres in the North, making it the gateway to promote trade with China and ASEAN and shortening the distance between Yen Bai and Hanoi to 125 kilometres, equivalent to 1.5 hours by car. That would create relatively favourable conditions for businesses to invest in production and trade in Yen Bai.
Dr Vu Tien Loc, President of VCCI said that being a mountainous locality which is still facing many difficulties in socio-economic development investment, Yen Bai is having many open policies to attract investment and facilitate businesses to invest and do business in Yen Bai province, especially investment in adjacent industrial complexes of Yen Bai City.
"VCCI is committed to effective implementation of cooperation agreement signed between VCCI and Yen Bai province, particularly in improving investment and business environment, administrative reform, calling for investment, supporting businesses in improving competitiveness, implementing restructuring and promoting implementation of contracts and cooperation agreements signed between Yen Bai city and its partners," said Dr Loc.
At the conference, Yen Bai city invited domestic and foreign investors to invest in 17 projects in the fields of textiles, leather and footwear, mechanics, electronics, chemical, car assembling, processing of agricultural and forestry products, construction of industrial complex infrastructure and tourism.
According to Mr Nguyen Lam Thang, to prepare to welcome and implement investment projects in the new stage of development, in addition to the issue of administrative procedures, the city of Yen Bai province has addressed issues related to the development of infrastructure for investment projects, one of the "bottlenecks" in the previous period. Firstly, it is important to develop industrial parks with clean land fund and with infrastructure systems such as electricity, roads, water supply and environmental remediation. In addition to existing industrial parks and clusters, the province continues to invest in industrial parks and clusters according to planning including Au Lau Industrial Park and Minh Bao Industrial Complex. Besides, it continues to plan and develop potential resources such as CaCO3, clay, ores, and agro-forestry material areas.
The province also continues to make planning and plan on training, developing and making use of the local abundant labour resources to meet the requirements of investors. Moreover, it has made additional studies of incentives investments to increase competitiveness and strengthened propaganda on promotion potential, advantages and investment opportunities for the business community in the country and abroad. Another very important issue is that the city will continue to maintain the security, safe politics, social order and safety, ensuring a favourable environment for economic development and investment attraction.
"I believe that, with the existing advantages, combined with policies favoring investment, many investors will consider Yen Bai an ideal place to do business, preparing for opportunities after the economy recovers. We look forward to welcoming associations, businesses, investors at home and abroad to establish firm, open representative office, and invest in industry, trade, services, and tourism in the province of Yen Bai," said Chairman Thang.
Currently, there are five industrial zones with an area of more than 1,000 hectares and 19 industrial clusters with an area of nearly 1,500 hectares waiting for investors.
Of particular interest is the Southern industrial zone, national industrial zone and key industrial zone of the province. With the advantage of being located near the Red River and Thac Ba lake (the white limestone materials zone), the national railway, highway 70, highway 32C and close access to the Trans-Asia highway, Southern industrial park is covering an area of 207,8 hectares. There are already 18 projects with a total registered investment capital of VND2,000 billion with occupancy rate of over 30 percent with investment projects focusing on the following areas: production of building materials, mineral processing, agro-forestry, and production of consumer goods.
Au Lau Industrial Zone of Au Lau Commune is among the national industrial park system. It has the first phase’s planned area of 120 hectares and currently is making ground clearance. Au Lau IZ is a multidisciplinary IZ with clean industrial projects being called for investment such as production of leather, electronics assembly, automotive assembly and motorcycle accessories industry.
Minh Quan Industrial Park, also in the national industrial park system, adjacent to National Highway 32C and trans-Asia Highway, with an area of 112 hectares, is inviting investment in the field of agricultural production and processing of forest products.
There are two clusters under Yen Bai city’s management. One is Dam Hong Industry Cluster with the area of 12 hectares, filled with 14 investment projects in the areas of timber processing, production of construction materials, mineral processing and mechanical with the total investment capital of VND65 billion.
The other one is Au Lau Industrial Zone with the advantage of being located in the provincial road, 2 kilometres away from the highway. It covers an area of 70 hectares. The first phase has used 10 hectares of land, and infrastructure construction is quite complete. It is expected to call for investment in the field of agro-forestry products, textiles and mechanics. There is currently an enterprise taking investment in and seven enterprises registering for investment.
Quynh Chi
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