Long An Province Fostering the Growth of Local Businesses

The economy of Long An province has considerably improved thanks to effective exploitation of local potentialities and advantages. However, to catch up with the current pace of industrialisation and modernisation, the province needs more efforts. The Vietnam Business Forum Magazine excerpted opinions of leaders of several organs in the province.

 

To improve the quality of value of agricultural products, Long An province has closely coordinated relevant bodies to focus on agricultural production. It has revised production plans, adopted cost-effective and quality farm produce to enhance competitiveness on the market.

 

The Long An Food Company signed purchase contracts with farmers in Can Duoc and Can Giuoc districts, invested in Hau Thanh Dong farm produce market, coordinated with the Agricultural Promotion Centre, the Dong Thap Muoi Research Centre for Agriculture, the An Giang Plant Protection Joint Stock Company and Sygenta Company to transfer advanced technological applications. Several companies and supermarkets in the province signed safe vegetable contacts with farmers in My Loc, Phuoc Hau, Phuoc Lam in Can Giuoc districts.

 

However, the linkage between relevant units remains weak and the province will strengthen to bring the local advantages and potentialities into full play.

 

Under the Vietnam tourism development strategy, Long An province is regarded as an important destination by 2020 among ecological tourism sites along the southern central and southern coasts of Vietnam. While taking advantages of favourable geological conditions, the tourism sector of Long An has carried out a tourism development cooperation programme with Ho Chi Minh City and has been implementing other cooperation programmes with Tien Giang and Dong Thap provinces and Can Tho City. The moves have paid the way for cooperation among localities in the near term in fields of exchanging experience in managing, zoning and attracting investment; tourism promotion; development of tourism products; and human resource training. Specifically, relevant agencies should regularly update information about destinations and tour programmes between Ho Chi Minh City and Long An province as well as the surroundings. At present, Long An is speeding up opening associated tours with other localities.

 

Over the past time, even though the Long An Department of Industry and Trade has made some remarkable achievements, there has still existed some inadequacies in import-export activities.

 

Specifically, the volume of the imported and exported goods slightly increased compared to the same period last year. Operations of enterprises in the province that produce goods for exports are seriously affected by the global economic crisis while solutions to support enterprises have not yet been strong and effective enough. The building of infrastructure in industrial parks (IPs) and industrial complexes is at slow pace while the lack of legal framework to manage the IPs and complexes has hindered attraction of investment to boost production and trading. Recent unstable power supply has caused considerable damages to enterprises. The province is still facing shortages of rice stores, stable pepper material areas while the apparel and leathering sectors are much dependant on imported materials and the seafood sector must buy materials from other localities. The export market has not yet been expanded. Regarding import-export activities, enterprises are encountering with some obstacles in buying foreign currencies upon the financial market fluctuations and applying for import licenses while import pricing and taxing are complicated.

 

In 2008, in order to satisfy capital demand by all economic sectors, the system of financial institutions in Long An had taken some drastic measures to raise the deposits to ensure payment and lending for local economic development. Via competition, the institutions had flexibly applied interest rate policies, regularly changed means of transaction and synchronically used methods of luring deposits to ensure growing deposits.

 

Based on their current capital sources, the institutions have been continuously applied solutions to improved efficiency of credit investment and ensure timely capital supply to feed demand by particular sectors as well as key economic programmes in the province.

 

According to a recent survey, the education level of the labour force in Lofn An province is still low, most of them finishing grade eighth while the number of untrained work force is still high, accounting for over 67 percent of the total labour force in the province and many people are still jobless. In addition, most of jobless working-aged people are unskilled and almost they fail to meet requirements by employers.

 

Some difficulties in human resource training in the province include weak awareness of vocational training and their and their families’ heavy thought of study at universities and colleges. Moreover, skill instructors in the province are inexperienced and lacking practical skills, which are blamed for unqualified labourers who fail to meet the market demand, particularly the high-tech sector.

 

However, the provincial industry and trade sector will do its utmost to raise the number of trained labour to 50 percent, including 30 per cent experiencing vocational training by 2010. The number of trained labour will be gradually raised in the following years, to 60 percent by 2015. By 2010, the province targets to have work force with college, intermediate and preliminary vocational training to 10 per cent, 20 per cent and 70 per cent, respectively, by 2010.