Da Nang Constantly Upgrading Infrastructure to Attract More Investment

Da Nang City has made proud achievements in the course of construction and development. The largest city in central Vietnam secured the top position on the provincial competitiveness index (PCI) in three straight years and stood on the Top 2 position in six consecutive years. This accomplishment is resulted from active leadership of the city, right selective and well-directed investment policies. By carefully selecting, the quality of projects in the city always outstands in environment, planning and technological criteria. Vietnam Business Forum’s reporter has an interview with Mr Huynh Duc Tho, Director of Da Nang Department of Planning and Investment, on this issue. Quoc Hung reports.

 

In the first 10 months of 2011, Da Nang City licensed 32 FDI projects with a total registered investment capital of US$294.1 million and allowed 14 existing projects to hike their investment capital by US$209.2 million, bringing the total new investment capital to US$503.3 million. To date, the city has 204 FDI projects worth US$3.2 billion and foreign investors disbursed US$1.42 billion on their projects. The presence of big service projects facilitates the city to reshuffle its economy towards greater proportion of services and industry and smaller contribution of agriculture. Specially, foreign direct investment has enriched the investment environment, promoted other economic sectors to develop, expanded cooperation with other foreign investors, and contribute to quicker international economic integration of the city.

 

In the upcoming time, to boost up efficiency and remove "bottlenecks" in investment attraction, we will focus on promoting disbursements to narrow the gap between registered value and disbursed value. We will coordinate and support investors to accelerate capital disbursement for their licensed projects, particularly large-scaled ones. We will also support them to deal with administrative procedures and intervene into site clearances to quicken the progress of investment projects. We will coordinate with relevant agencies and district authorities to support FDI enterprises to solve problems when they put their projects into operation. At the same time, we will have specific plans to collect information about underway FDI projects (from formation to operation) to provide timely post-investment support. Moreover, we will step up investigation and supervision after project licensing to timely remind investors to follow current legal regulations on investment process and prevent any act of law infringement. We will also continue reviewing troubled projects and revoke investment licences if they fail to meet requirements to give the opportunity for other investors.

To promote its advantages over the years, Da Nang has focused investment on urban infrastructure development and industrial park construction. The city also restructured the governing and operating mechanisms for Hoa Cam Industrial Park, expanded Hoa Khanh Industrial Park, and Lien Chieu Industrial Park. A lot of investors have registered to locate their projects inside industrial parks in the city, especially Japanese and European investors. The investment for better infrastructure has given a facelift to the city. The upgrading of industrial parks, the full construction of industrial park infrastructure, and the eradication of weaknesses investors fears have been translated into interests of investors. This year, the city has highlighted public administration reform in a move to strengthen the confidence of investors.

 

Specially, the city received a permit from the central government for the construction of infrastructure for 1,500-ha Da Nang Hi-tech Park to attract investment projects with source technology, high tech, high-tech incubation, high-tech services to power up the development of the city in subsequent years.

As you know, the Resolution 33-NQ/TW of the Politburo on "Building and developing Da Nang in the process of national industrialisation and modernisation" reads “Building Da Nang into one of largest urban zones in the country, a major economic and social centre of the central region, a strategic position in the national and regional defence and security; Becoming one of the first localities in the country to accomplish the cause of industrialisation and modernisation and a basically industrialised city before 2020.”

 

To realise these goals, the city has constantly reformed administrative procedures and mobilised all resources in Vietnam and foreign countries over the past years. Particularly, in the 2006 - 2010 period, more than 50 key projects had been invested in the city in various fields like infrastructure development, tourism, service and industry. Typical projects include Hai Van Pass Tunnel, Thuan Phuoc Bridge, Rong Bridge, Hoang Sa - Truong Sa Road, Trung Vuong Theatre, upgraded Da Nang Airport. .Especially, more than 20 real estate projects carried out by Vietnamese and foreign investors have created a new face for the city and thus increased sheer vitality in the city’s social and economic development.

 

In addition to the distinctive advantages in convenient traffics and synchronous infrastructure, the improvement of investment environment has played an important part in attracting effective investments. Da Nang secured the top position on the provincial competitiveness index (PCI) in three straight years and stood on the Top 2 position in six consecutive years.

 

To uphold accomplishments and improve approaches for a better investment environment, all tiers of government in Da Nang will continue streamlining administrative procedures for investors. Specifically, the city will apply the single-window mechanism in the project licensing stage in order to save time and costs for investors. When the projects are carried out or completed, all concerned State agencies will join to help investors to resolve their procedures in the shortest time and with least effort. Notably, site clearance procedures and land-use rights certification are implemented in the ISO 9001-2010 process. Moreover, in this period, the city will always monitor and urge investors to keep pace with the progress committed to the authorities.