In recent times, we can see that the deliberate exploitation of Quang Nam’s local advantages has brought comprehensive development and a boost for the province. In an interview with Vietnam Business Forum, Director of Quang Nam Department of Planning and Investment Tran Van Tri said: “With the goal of striving to become an industrial province towards modernization in 2020, Quang Nam welcomes both domestic and foreign investors to the province to share opportunities, cooperate successfully in its own inherent value and join hands to contribute to transforming potential strength into practical economic effects. Thank Kieu reports.
In your opinion, what potential advantages does Quang Nam possess to stand out? With that potential, what are the achievements of the province in attracting investment in recent times?
The primary advantage is the favourable economic geography position: it is surrounded by Da Nang city to the North – economic centre of the country’s central region, by Quang Ngai province to the South with Vietnam’s first oil refinery industrial park; Chu Lai open economic zone, Chu Lai airport, Ky Ha seaport, a free trade zone, Truong Hai automobile industry centre and South Hoi An tourist complex to the South, and Sekong Province of Lao People’s Democratic Republic where the Dac Ta economic zone in the 2nd East-West economic corridor is forming. This region has abundant forest resources with diverse ecosystems, rare plants, and large amounts of mineral reserves and water resources.
In addition to the favourable geographical position, Quang Nam owns diverse historical cultural background with 2 world heritages including Hoi An Ancient Town and My Son Sanctuary. Besides, the World Biosphere Reserve Cu Lao Cham was recognized by UNESCO in 2009 along with many historical sites, unique cultural history and beautiful beaches and landscapes are conductive to the development of high international standard tourist area. Notably, some tourist areas such as Nam Hai, Palm Garden, Golden Sands and Hoi An Beach Resort have successfully hosted several major national and international conferences, contributing to the strength of Hoi An travel brand – 1 of top 10 tourist destinations in Asia.
After splitting, Quang Nam focused on shifting economic structure, especially on industrial development. The province’s industrial manufacturing factories are mainly concentrated in the Chu Lai open economic zone and Dien Nam Dien Ngoc industrial park. With efforts to innovate, Quang Nam is recognized by the Government as one of the provinces having the fastest industrial growth rate in the country.
In the spirit of fully utilizing all potential advantages to attract investment, in the recent times, the province has achieved positive changes in terms of investment. In the field of domestic investment attraction, the capital increased from VND 13,899 billion in 2007 to VND 25,000 billion in 2011. Many major projects have been implemented such as Truong Hai Auto Assembly and Production Company and Dong Xanh JSC’s ethanol plant. In terms of foreign direct investment, it also achieved encouraging results with 77 projects having total registered capital of US$ 5.1 billion. Significantly, there has been the presence of multinational corporations such as Indochina Capital, Rieker Group (Hong Kong), Inax Group (Japan), Groz-Beckert (Germany) and Vina Capital-Genting Group (Malaysia).
What are the province’s solutions to increase investment attraction?
To welcome domestic and foreign investment flows, in the near future, Quang Nam will focus on mobilizing all resources, both internal and external ones to accelerate socio-economic development, particularly on planning, administrative procedures, infrastructure investment and human resource development.
On planning, the province accelerates the process of building and approval of missing plans; and reviews to complete and adjust inappropriate plans in order to create factorable conditions for investors in project determination and construction. On administrative procedures, the province focuses on promoting administrative reform, having open and transparent policies and investment registration procedures. The province also mobilizes internal and external resources to improve the quality of vocational training institutions and the quality of human resources.
In particular, we are interested in overcoming weaknesses in infrastructure, mobilizing resources and taking advantages of support and assistance from central ministry and agencies, enhancing cooperation ability with foreign economic agencies in Vietnam and international groups to mobilize extra-budgetary resources for infrastructure development and production projects, contributing to addressing local employment and increasing revenues for the state budget.
To accomplish the plan of becoming a modern industry-service province by 2020, what is Quang Nam’s direction to attract investment?
To gradually turn these goals into reality, Quang Nam province focuses on mobilizing all resources to develop its infrastructure system with Ky Ha seaport, Chu Lai airport, and main axis road such as Dang Nang-Quang Nam highway, Cua Dai Bridge, and Giao Thuy Bridge. Coastal plains with core elements such as urban industrial park and urban tourist areas are dynamic development areas and key contributors to the growth of the whole province, with major sectors including industry, trade, tourism and services. The province also strengthens infrastructure construction for commercial development, particularly Nam Giang international border gate to create trade connections with Southern Laos, Northern Cambodia and Northeastern Thailand.
The province focuses on developing Dien Nam-Dien Ngoc, Thuan Yen, North Chu Lai, East Thang Binh, Trang Nhat and East Que Son industrial zones to attract clean and high technology industry projects; planning and developing small industrial clusters in districts, cities and traditional villages. It also completes investment in Dien Ban-Hoi An coastal tourist area, and South Hoi An tourist area, speeds up development in Cu Lao Cham tourist area, special entertainment Tam Hai (Nui Thanh) tourist area, Co Co and Truong Giang riverside tourist areas, attaching to types of tourism inland, building international standards tourism industry. It also forms high-tech agricultural farms and promotes the development of traditional handicraft villages to ensure the landscape, logistics and product development for tourists.
In the midland and mountainous areas, the province will focus on developing industrial power generation, processing mineral, agricultural and forestry products to gradually plan areas producing raw material for industrial production. It also focuses on research, conservation and development of precious medicines derived from available local herbal plants to produce competitive products for the domestic and international markets.
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