Dong Thap Province - New Opportunities

3:26:40 PM | 8/7/2005

Dong Thap Province - New Opportunities

On the 28th of May 2005, Dong Thap province held an investment promotion conference at the Independence Palace, Ho Chi Minh City with the attendance of many Ho Chi Minh City- based companies, which have been successful in Dong Thap like QVQ Ltd. Co. Toan Sang Ltd. Co., Viet Thang Joint Stock Company and the General Garment Corporation of Vietnam. Therefore, Dong Thap province called for further cooperation and investment from the enterprises of Ho Chi Minh City as well as foreign investors.

Dong Thap is a province in the Plain of Reeds with a well invested infrastructure. The economy has developed at high growth rate. The agriculture production in 2004 reached 2.4 millions tonnes, six times higher than 1975. Currently, Dong Thap is one of three provinces having the highest food production in the country. Its second strength after rice, which has been exploited and developed fast by the province, is aqua products with the average exploitation and cultivation of more than 100,000 tonnes per year. Dong Thap still has large areas of fruit gardens with delicious fruit which are well-known around the country. The province has formulated large-scale cultivation areas for creating materials for processing industries like high-quality rice, maize, soya, fruit trees and cat-fish. 

With the advantage of abundant materials, Dong Thap has planned three concentrated industrial parks (Sa Dec, Tran Quoc Toan and Hau River Industrial Parks). Up to now, there are 28 projects registered for investment licenses and 12 projects in the process of implementation. In addition, the province has planned 30 industrial and small-industry complexes as well as hundreds craft villages in the provincial territory. The average growth rate has reached 15 – 18 percent per year.

The trade and services activities in the province have seen active changes with the presence of markets and trade centres from urban to rural areas, meeting the demand of goods circulation for production and consumption. There are some specialised markets like markets for agricultural products, aqua products and fruit. In particular, with the frontier line of 48 kilometres bordering the PreyVeng province (Cambodia), Dong Thap has developed strong border trade. The international border economic zone of Dong Thap located in the southern economic corridor of the expanded Mekong sub-region is a favourable gateway for goods transportation to Cambodia and other countries in the region. The national border gate of Dinh Ba, after being connected to trans-Asia road, will create a transportation route to Phnom Penh and Bangkok. Dong Thap still has many historical and ecological tourist spots such as Bird National Park, Go Thap Cultural Relic, Xeo Quyt Relic, Gao Giong ecological tourist zone, the Tomb of Mr. Nguyen Sinh Sac - Father of President Ho Chi Minh and Tan Quy Dong village growing flowers and ornamental plants (Sa Dec Town). Import-exports have had rather high growth rates with an average increase of 18 – 19 percent per year. The import-export turnover value of 2005 is expected to reach USUS$360 millions including about USUS$200 millions from export. Strategic exports of Dong Thap are rice (380,000 tonnes), frozen aqua products (25,000 tonnes) and deep fried shrimp cakes (3,000 tonnes). Recently, lotus seeds and straw mushrooms become two new prospective exports. Noticeably, the import of equipment and medical materials serving production has increased.

Local human resource is abundant. The population of working age makes up 60 percent (960,000 people). The rate of trained labourers stands at 18 percent. The Teacher’s Training Institute and the Community College provide training from the secondary to university levels to about 2,500 – 3,000 students per year. The network of professional training and vocational centres has a training scale of 1,200 – 1,500 trainees.

Currently, Dong Thap province has 19 state-owned enterprises, two 100 percent foreign invested enterprises, 1,200 private enterprises, 200 cooperatives and 40,000 business households. They have obtained good results in their business operation and have been capable partners in the economic cooperation for production expansion. 

Indicators

2001 – 2005

 2006 – 2010

Average GDP growth rate per year

9 – 10 percent

14.5 percent

Economic structure

In 2004

In 2010

Agriculture – Aqua products

56.91 percent

37.41 percent

Industry

15.35 percent

33.52 percent

Services

27.74 percent

29.07 percent

Mr. Truong Ngoc Han – the Chairman of Dong Thap province said, “Dong Thap still faces some difficulties like inadequate infrastructure, small scale production and low level technology. Therefore, our product competitiveness is not high. However, due to the shortage of investment capital, Dong Thap province in general and enterprises in particular have not fully exploited local potential and advantages. Through meeting with the investors and enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City, I hope that you will contribute your efforts to discovering opportunities for yourselves as well as for further development of Dong Thap province”. Mr. Han revealed that, local leaders always provide a heart-warming and friendly welcome to investors to achieve a common goal. The People’s Committee of Dong Thap province has issued Investment Encouragement Policies applied to the border economic zones in Dong Thap, some mechanisms and policies for infrastructure investment in the industrial complexes located in town areas as well as additional investment incentives promulgated in conjunction with the Decision No25/2005/QD-UB, dated the 14th of February 2005.

The investors and enterprises can invest directly or cooperate with provincial businesses to carry out investment in projects like husking and processing high quality rice, producing canned fruit juice and mushrooms for export. In the industrial field, there is possible investment in the shoe making for export, vegetable oil processing, producing household plastic products, pulp producing, pre-fabricated concrete components manufacturing, producing wooden furniture, producing denatured starch for paper industry and other products, making bricks and products for interior decoration, animal feed processing and meat processing for export. As for trade, there are many projects calling for investment. They include Cao Lanh trade centre, not to mention trade centres, services and supermarkets in the districts and markets in the border economic zones of Thuong Phuoc and Dinh Ba as well as the wholesale markets for fruits and aqua products. There are investment projects in the tourism sector like Go Thap tourist zone (providing ecological tourism, traditional festivals and entertainment), general recreational centre of Cau Bac – Cao Lanh, the ecological tourist zones of Gao Giong and Xeo Quyt.

  • Hai Nguyen