Hai Phong - Successful Destination for Investors

To further introduce outstanding geographic advantages, open business environment and projects calling for investment capital and create a forum for domestic and foreign institutions, investors and enterprises to meet, dialogue, exchange experience and expand development cooperation, the Municipal People’s Committee will jointly hold the Investment Promotion Conference 2016. With the message “Hai Phong - Destination for investors”, the local authorities are striving to make the city a preferred and attractive place to invest by carrying out various solutions and activities.

Hai Phong is situated at the centre of the northern coast of Vietnam. It serves as an important transport hub and a main entrance to the sea of northern provinces. It has favourable conditions to exchange with other localities in the country and the world. This location advantage is confirmed in the Resolution 32-NQ/TW of the Politburo dated August 5, 2003 on Hai Phong City construction and development in the course of national industrialisation and modernisation. That is also a magnet to investors and Hai Phong is always their first choice. Apart from seaports, the city also has continuously interconnected air, waterway and group traffic systems. This plus is added when infrastructure, particularly transport infrastructure, is built, upgraded and expanded. A series of projects such as Hai Phong International Gateway Port, Hanoi - Hai Phong Motorway, Tan Vu - Lach Huyen Motorway, Dinh Vu - Cat Hai Economic Zone and Cat Bi International Airport support the development of Hai Phong and other localities.

In recent years, Hai Phong City has also prepared all necessary conditions for investors. It has a vast clean land fund for investors. For example, the 22,000-ha Dinh Vu - Cat Hai Economic Zone has ready infrastructure for investors, including roads, electricity, water supply, sewage and communication services plus green space and environment-friendly landscape. Therefore, investors have conditions to carry out their projects in the fastest manner. For instance, Bridgestone completed and operated its nearly US$600 million tyre production project after just 10 months of construction.

 

Investors, especially FDI investors, choose Hai Phong because as it has abundant human resources in both quantity and quality. Defining that personnel is one of three groundbreaking development factors, the city has focused resources and solutions on strongly developing education and training. Hai Phong is a pioneering locality to build and develop non-State schools which enrol around 10,000 students a year. State-funded schools like Hai Phong University and College of Medicine and Pharmacology are also invested for scale upgrading, expansion and quality improvement. Many schools have also asserted their brand names and positions in education and training, such as Maritime University, the University of Hai Phong, Hai Phong Private University as well as vocational colleges like Bach Nghe, Industry, Duyen Hai, Tourism, Central Transport 2 and Viettronics.

 

 

Particularly, the local business climate has increasingly improved since city leaders expressed their determination to attract more investors. The Hai Phong Party Committee issued Resolution 01-NQ/TU on accelerated reform of State administration in 2011-2015, carried out many consistent and innovative solutions and measures to develop the modern single-window mechanism, and held regular talks with citizens.

 

Additionally, the city publicises socioeconomic development plans, industry development plans, land-use plans, and detailed construction plans to ease citizens and enterprises to access information quickly and conveniently. Thus, the Public Administration Reform (PAR) Index of Hai Phong City has been always ranked high by the Ministry of Home Affairs. What’s more, Its Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) has also increasingly improved and its position is usually secured in the upper half of the rankings table announced by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

 

Specific solutions to improve the business environment To bring to life the Resolution 35/NQ-CP of the Government dated May 16, 2016 on business development support to 2020, the Hai Phong People’s Committee issued the Plan 962/KH-UBND dated June 28, 2016 to execute the Resolution 35/NQ-CP of the Government. Accordingly, Hai Phong will have over 31,000 operational enterprises by 2020 and the private sector will make up 51-53 per cent of gross regional domestic product (GRDP). Enterprises are encouraged to upgrade operations, renovate science and technology to production and business and the private sector must be the driving force for the city to enhance its economic competitiveness and autonomy. They must uphold the spirit of national pride, sense of legal compliance and integrity in business; build corporate culture, business ethics and corporate social responsibility; perform healthy competition, sharing and cooperation; and enhance competitiveness

Hai Phong put forth five support contents, including:

 (1) Accelerating administrative procedure reform by enhancing openness and transparency of all procedures to create favourable conditions for enterprises

(2) Strengthening the dissemination and guidance of legal knowledge to businesses to help them understand and implement business and investment activities according to the law.

(3) Creating start-up support system and scientific - technological business incubator system to shape a favourable investment and business climate and stabilise start-ups.

(4) Ensuring the right to do business and the right of equal access to resources and business opportunities

(5) Protecting legitimate rights and interests of enterprises; maintaining the time of settling business registration procedures to less than three working days; supporting and facilitating the development of social enterprises.

 

The Municipal People’s Committee also assigned specific tasks to departments and branches. Particularly, the Department of Planning and Investment was tasked to generalise difficulties, obstacles and proposals of enterprises submitted by the VCCI Haiphong, the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance, Hai Phong Business Association, and other business associations to suggest the Municipal People’s Committee to solve. In the course of execution, the Municipal People’s Committee required the Office of the Municipal People’s Committee to lead and propose inspection and supervisory teams to departments, branches, localities and units. The city asked enterprises to exercise their rights and obligations as stipulated by the law; report and exchange difficulties and obstacles with authorities; and step up corporate restructuring, boost business cooperation, enhance advanced scientific and technological application, enhance corporate governance productivity, quality competitiveness, uphold national pride and business ethics, respect the law and the corporate culture, integrity in business, exercise corporate social responsibility, take part in poverty reduction and environmental protection programmes. The Municipal People’s Committee told heads of provincial departments, branches, district governments to base on their agencies’ power and tasks to make monthly and quarterly reports for the Provincial People’s Committee to report on the Government of Vietnam and the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

 

The direction, solutions and operation of the local authorities in the past time shows that:

Hai Phong City is committed to creating the best conditions for investors by quickening administrative reform, strongly improving the investment climate, and completing key projects. The city targets to become a leading light in investment attraction according to the Conclusion 72-KL/W of the Politburo on continued execution of the Resolution 32-NQ/TW of the Politburo (11^th term) on Hai Phong City construction and development in the course of industrialisation and modernisation. From now till 2020, Hai Phong will need to maximize resources and advantages to shape Hai Phong a modern green, civilised port city, a service centre, a big industrial centre, a driving force of maritime economic development, a centre of education, training, health, science and technology in the northern coastal region, a transport hub of the nation and a key gateway to the sea for localities in the Vietnam - China Economic Corridor. The city will complete the course of industrialisation and modernisation before 2020.