Attentively Exploiting Potential, Advantages

To bring out its potential for sustainable and quick development, in the past years Hoa Binh has made efforts to create an open and preferential investment and business environment. To learn more about this topic, Vietnam Business Forum Magazine interviewed Mr Bui Hai Quang, Director of Hoa Binh Department of Planning and Investment. Tran Trang reports.

Besides advantages, Hoa Binh has to face many difficulties. Despite being the gateway entering the capital, Hoa Binh is a mountainous province with separated terrain, so little smooth and flat land square for building factories and plants. In addition, Hoa Binh is still a poor province with limited budget for investment attraction, low technical infrastructure which hasn’t been comprehensively invested and inconvenient transportation. Most local labourers haven’t been trained, changing occupation for farmers is also limited.

 

Overcoming such difficulties, in the past time, investment attraction activities in the province have gained positive results. By August 30^th 2011, there are 351 investment projects, including 21 directly foreign funded ones with total registered capital of US $ 132 million and 330 domestic ones with registered capital of VND 29,172 billion. It can be stated that investment attraction activities had an important contribution to provincial social-economic development. Efficient investment attraction helped to add capital to meet increasing need of investment, thereby boosted up economic growth and economic structure shift, created jobs for labors, increased submit to national Budget etc. Particularly, in 2009, enterprises and household businesses in the province submitted over VND 750 billion to national Budget, created jobs for 60,000 labors; in 2010, the corresponding figures were VND 796 billion and 70,000 labors etc.

Economic hard context has directly influenced public investment, investment attraction in the locality, which is obviously reflected in some projects which have investment policies approved but their progress delayed. Being aware of that soon, the province has reviewed, classified investment projects in need and determined specifically difficulties, on which implemented supporting measures to speed up projects’ progress. The province also held dialogues to find out measures to help enterprises; recalled investment certificates from projects for which it was impossible to continue implementation. At the moment, Hoa Binh is still fostering activities of investigating and assisting investors in need and treating those with violations.

In the past time, the Department of Planning and Investment has counselled the provincial People’s Committee to issue many mechanisms, measures to reform administrative procedures. A notable example was the counsel to issue Decision No.04/2011/QĐ-UBND dated April 21st 2011 involving duties: “Directors of Departments, Heads of offices, Chairmen of People’s Committee in districts, city take charge of publicly reviewing files, administrative procedures, files’ recipients, people in charge, settling time which are quoted at the offices, posted on Hoa Binh provincial portal, websites of Department of Planning and Investment, departments, offices and People’s Committee in districts, city; assigning officials and staffs with qualification, professionalism and moral manners to meet investors, receive and settle legally, ensuring time keeping for procedures related to investment projects. Besides, concerning administrative procedures settling for an investment project, Department of Planning and Investment is the focal point to contact, provide information and guide investors to prepare files according to regulations. In addition, the Department has also proposed provincial People’s Committee to instruct departments, offices to held dialogues with enterprises and investors about industrial administrative procedures.

 

According to Report on Provincial Competitiveness Index in 2010 released by Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Project Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative, Hoa Binh was ranked 60^th among 63 provinces and cities, listed in a rather low group. The report also figured out weak indexes needed increased that were: Market entering cost; openness and transparency and unofficial expenses.

After announcement of Provincial Competitiveness in 2010, provincial People’s Committee has been concentrating on guiding to build up action plans, programmes about competitiveness initiative in the province. The People’s Committee has assigned functional offices to review enterprises in order to evaluate mission quality of administrative offices. At the same time, the province has also requested departments and offices to review administrative procedures, public services, based on which to build up forms quoted publicly, correct working style to improve services’ quality, condition enterprises and individuals to invest and expand business. 

 

To enhance information, the province has increased operation efficiency of provincial, departmental, offices’, districts and city’s websites. Provincial People’s Committee to make public information such as: provincial budget, social-economic development plans, governmental and local legal documents, maps and land use plans, provincial preferential investment policies etc.