Removing Bottlenecks of Personnel

Hoa Lu Border Gate Economic Zone was approved for establishment under the Prime Minister's Decision 03/2005/QD-TTg dated January 5, 2005, and for planning under the Prime Minister’s Decision 61/QD-TTg dated January 13, 2010, covering a total area of 28,364 ha. On March 8, 2011, the Provincial People’s Committee issued the Decision 482/QD-UBND to ratify the plan for the subdivision for administrative, commercial, service and industrial purposes, covering 3,535 ha.

 

In 2011, industrial output value of enterprises in industrial zones reached US$138.1 million, accounting for almost 50 percent of the province’s industrial production value and export turnover topped US$118.06 million, equalling 17.26 percent of the province’s exports. Tenants in industrial parks now provide 9,000 jobs for native and migrant workers. In 2011, the province licensed 11 investment projects in industrial parks, including four domestic projects worth VND134.9 billion and seven foreign-invested projects capitalised at US$39.55 million, down 47.2 percent and up 16.4 percent from 2010, respectively. In the first six months of 2012, three foreign-invested projects were licensed in industrial parks with a registered capital of US$31.4 million, representing a year on year rise of 25.34 percent, and one domestic investment project was approved with a registered capital of VND11.48 billion, down 89 percent from the same period in 2011.

 

At present, Hoa Lu Border Gate Economic Zone is housing 73 tenants leasing 314 ha of land for their projects. Particularly, 21 enterprises were granted investment licences with a total registered capital of VND894 billion and US$2 million. 10 enterprises started operations, mainly focusing on trade, service, farm produce trading, wood processing and construction stone. In 2011, three investment projects were licensed into the economic zone with a combined investment capital of VND118.8 billion, an increase of 295 percent from 2010. In the first six months of 2012, the management board considered leasing land for some investors, mostly small and medium ones.

 

Speaking of efforts to deal with personnel difficulties, Nguyen Van Loi, Vice Chairman of Binh Phuoc Provincial People’s Committee and Director of Binh Phuoc Economic Zone Management Board, said: Binh Phuoc province has an abundant supply of land for investment projects because its industrial parks are newly established. Low construction costs make land rentals cheaper than in other industrial parks in neighbouring provinces. For the time being, the province has nearly 2,000 ha of rentable land. However, it lacks a highly qualified labour force. The 13 existing vocational training facilities have not been able to meet the requirements of investors.

 

To resolve this problem, in addition to upgrading existing vocational training institutions, the provincial government issued Decision 138/QD-UBND dated January 15, 2010 to approve education development planning to 2015, with a vision towards 2020. Accordingly, six new educational establishments will be formed from 2011 to 2015 and 11 others will be set up from 2015 to 2020. Hopefully, in the near future, vocational training institutions in the province will able to meet the demand for skilled labourers from local enterprises.

 

To attract investment capital into industrial parks and economic zones in general and border facilities in particular, the Provincial People’s Committee issued Decision 42/2011/QD-UBND dated June 28, 2011 on incentives for investors in Binh Phuoc province.