Despite numerous difficulties arising from being newly re-established, Bac Kan province, has great potential to attract investors. A prominent advantage is its forests and resources. The province has 400,000 ha of forests and forestland, of which 39,300 ha are planted forests, 157,400 ha are unplanted forestlands. Each year, forests provide over 63,000 cubic meters of timber. Bac Kan is also rich in natural minerals. Up to 165 mines and ore deposits have been found in the province, with many holding large reserves, particularly of lead, zinc, iron, gold, and limestone ores. Bac Kan also has great potential in rocks, especially white stone, which is favoured by foreign customers. Moreover, Ba Be Lake in Bac Kan is a famous natural and historic landscape. All investors are clearly enchanted by Bac Kan’s tremendous potential.
With endless effort in past years, Bac Kan has attracted many projects in different industries. In agriculture and forestry, Sahabak Joint Stock Company invested VND21 billion (US$1 million) to build a wood processing factory with an annual output of 10,000 cubic metres of product, and VND1,140 billion (US$50 million) to build a medium-density fibreboard (MDF) factory with a yearly output of 108,000 cubic metres of product. In the mining industry, Van Loi Mineral and Metallurgy Joint Stock Company spent VND1,115 billion to construct an iron complex with a yearly capacity of 250,000 tonnes of steel. Ngoc Linh Co., Ltd injected over VND500 billion to build a lead-zinc electrolyte plant with an annual output of 200,000 tonnes of lead and zinc. Material and Complete Equipment Export - Import Corporation (Matexim) used VND549 billion to build a non-coke smelter with a yearly output of 100,000 tonnes.
This success is attributed to the effective, initiative investment attraction policy of the province. In December 2003, the Provincial People’s Committee issued the investment incentive policy. With its investment policies and mechanisms, Bac Kan also endeavoured to mobilise and utilise investment resources for upgrading traffic networks, communications systems, the power grid, and other infrastructure. The province also invested to upgrade education facilities in order to enhance the quality of human resources, and gradually completed industry-specific and locality-specific planning to boost investment attraction. In particular, in late 2009, the province established the Investment Trade and Tourism Promotion Centre under the Provincial People's Committee to act as a bridge for investors and the government.
As a result, many investors in Bac Kan and other provinces and cities are very interested in the business environment in the province. Since 2007, the province licensed 40 projects with a total investment capital of more than VND6.5 trillion.
To boost the efficiency of investment attraction for socioeconomic development, the immediate solution the province takes is to diversify investment forms, make up a list of projects from now to 2015 for investors from other localities and other countries. The province will also enhance the quality of investment planning to create more opportunities for investors from other localities and other countries. Last but not least, Bac Kan will continue improving all aspects of investment efficiency and the investment environment.
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