Tan Chau Town: Boosting Border Gate Economic Growth

Tan Chau is a border town which is located in the riverhead of the Tien River in the southern province of An Giang. With a long-standing history and a favourable geographical position, Tan Chau owns advantages for traffic network development, particularly waterway. The place has long become a goods transshipment centre between Vietnam and countries in the sub-Mekong region, especially from the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh through Vinh Xuong Border Gate. Tan Chau also boasts favourable conditions for the development of various economic sectors, including industry, agriculture, traditional handicraft, trade, services and tourism.

 

With the expectation to take advantages of the potentials for economic development, the town’s authority has made tireless effort to improve investment environment, considering border gates as the momentum for its development. Tan Chau has also called on investors to join hands for the development of a young town in the near future.

 

The town is seen as a key position not only for An Giang province’s economic development but also for the Mekong Delta region’s as a whole. Therefore, the government has offered priorities for the locality’s socio-economic development. Vinh Xuong also enjoys priority regulations applied to other border gate economic zones in the province and nationwide.

 

Under the new regulations, goods and services imported from foreign countries into Tan Chau’s industrial and trade complex will be totally exempted from import tax, valued added tax and excise tax. Businesses in the complex also get exemption in export tax and excise tax. As for commodities using imported components and materials are only required to pay part of import tax. In addition, investors are entirely exempted from corporate income tax within four years since they have taxable income and enjoy a 50-percent discount of the required corporate income tax within the nine following years as well as many other priorities. Chairman of the Tan Chau People’s Committee, Nguyen Van Len, said the town considers Vinh Xuong Border Gate Economic Zone as its strength to develop trade, tourism and industrial production. Accordingly, local trade and industrial zones, including warehouses, free-duty shops, showrooms and border market, are expected to work as goods transshipment centres between the town and Ho Chi Minh City, the Mekong Delta and the whole country as well as Cambodia and the ASEAN region.

 

Currently, the town is seeking investments for a VND60- billion project to build infrastructure of Vinh Xuong economic zone. In addition, the town’s authority is waiting for approval from the province and the central agencies to upgrade roads 952 and 953 liking National Highway 1 (Cambodia) and Trans-Asia road into national highways along with wharfs and Tan Chau Port. These are levers for Tan Chau to boost border gate, trade and services economic development which is expected to account for 60 percent of the town’s economic structure.