Investment capital attracted has played an important role in social and economic development of Binh Phuoc province. “To enhance the quality and efficiency of investment attraction, the province will effectively focus on three breakthrough programmes, namely economic restructuring programme, infrastructure development investment programme, and human resources development programme" said Mr Vu Thanh Nam, Director of Department of Planning and Investment. Hoang Lam reports.
What are the advantages of Binh Phuoc province in investment attraction in comparison with other provinces and cities in the country? How have these advantages been tapped in the past time?
Binh Phuoc is a southeast province situated in the southern key economic zone. The province has a 260.43 km border with Cambodia, thus it acts as an important bridge to reach border provinces of Cambodia and the Central Highlands of Vietnam, thanks to its relatively favourable transport systems. The province is one of the largest industrial crop growers in the country with 200,000 ha of rubber trees, 150,000 ha of cashew trees and other cash crops like pepper, coffee and fruit trees.
Especially, the land fund for investment attraction has been ready with industrial parks covering 5,244 ha in total approved for construction and development by the Prime Minister, in addition to the 28,364-ha Hoa Lu Border Gate Economic Zone, including 3,535 ha in the first stage. These spaces are ready to house domestic and foreign investors.
In 16 years since re-establishment, by tapping existing advantages and potentials, Binh Phuoc has achieved positive results in investment attraction. The result of investment attraction is the sharp rise in investment projects and capital. The province had only 181 businesses with a registered capital of VND35 billion at the time of re-establishment, but it now has 3,800 companies (over 200-times increase) with a combined registered capital of VND28 trillion (more than 800-fold increase). Foreign invested projects also increased from only one project with US$20.58 million of investment capital to 99 projects with a registered capital of US$720 million, of which 62 projects have come into effect.
This success has contributed to its economic growth in the 1997 - 2012 period, averaging at 12.33 per cent per annum. Per capita income also increased by 10.4 times, while the economic structure is shifted on the right direction.
Creating an investor-friendly environment and simplifying administrative procedures is important to attract investment capital sources. How has the province focused on this aspect in the past time?
Being fully aware that making the investment environment better is important to investment attraction, the province has focused on public administration reform to reduce unnecessary procedures in the investment process. The provincial government regularly directs its subordinates to review and reduce administrative steps and formalities, and publish administrative procedures on websites to assist investors to study before applying investment procedures. Therefore, the time for completing administrative procedures is shortened to only a half of the duration specified by the Government.
Committed to creating the most favourable conditions for investors to do effective business, how has Binh Phuoc province realised its commitment of “seeing the projects of investors as its own”?
Identifying that investment attraction and business development play a crucial role in local economic development, the province always focuses on supporting investment attraction and business development. To perform this task effectively, the province established an investment advisory team to quickly resolve requests from investors during the time they carry out their projects. Dialogues between investment authorities and investors are also organised annually, through which investors put forth their requests and seek support and solutions from authorities. Besides, the province also set up the Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Centre under the authority of the Provincial People’s Committee and the Small and Medium Enterprises Support Centre under the Department of Planning and Investment to provide timely advice and support for enterprises when they do business in the province.
Specifically, in 2012, the province established a workgroup responsible for troubleshooting difficulties facing businesses. It has met with, answered and instructed businesses on accessing capital sources, seeking soft loans and gaining incentives from the province.
To enhance the quality and efficiency of investment attraction, the province will effectively focus on three breakthrough programmes, namely economic restructuring, infrastructure development investment, and human resources development. Particularly, the province will perform and complete land planning and industry planning to attract investment capital, while stepping up infrastructure investment in industrial zones and economic zones to draw investment capital for the manufacturing, processing and supporting industries.
Besides, the province will concentrate on planning personnel training and human resources development to meet the labour demand of domestic and foreign enterprises, and frequently reform administrative investment procedures.
What are the province’s investment attraction orientations in 2013 - 2015, with a vision to 2020?
Based on its potentials and advantages of input materials, high-value perennial crops like rubber, cashew, cassava and pepper, the province will focus on attracting investment for large-scaled, modern rubber processing projects for supporting industries and household product manufacturing. Besides, the province will build up the cashew and pepper brand names and expand these crop areas and related processing industries.
Last but not least, based on its specific livestock and poultry husbandry planning, the province will apply advanced husbandry processes, and develop feed production and meat processing to supply domestic and international markets.
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