Thai Binh: Potential and Investment Opportunities

As a coastal province in the Red River Delta, Thai Binh is 110 km from Hanoi, 70 km from Hai Phong and located in the area directly affected by the economic triangle of Hanoi, Hai Phong and Quang Ninh. Thai Binh has a population of 1.78 million, a natural area of 1647.7 km2. Thai Binh has a coastline of 54 km, with 5 large estuaries to the sea, forming a sedimentation of coastal sand dunes, over 5,000 hectares of wetland, is located in the biosphere reserve recognised by UNESCO and intertidal zone of 16,000-18,000 ha, of which 6,000-7,000 ha can be used for aquaculture.

 

Thai Binh has a very rich natural resource, particularly mineral resources. The gas source of Tien Hai has been used for the production of some materials such as porcelain, ceramic and glass of the Tien Hai Industrial Zone. The province is working with the Petrol Vietnam (PVN) to connect the gas pipes from zone 103 and 104 at the coastal line to the Tien Hai Industrial Park. In particular, Thai Binh has coal basin located inside the Red River Delta, which has a large reserve of coal (over 210 billion tonnes) at a depth of from 600 to 1,600 metres and is planned for exploiting in 2015 by the Government. This opens up the possibility of industrial development. Thai Binh also coordinates with the Vietnam Coal and Mineral Industries Corporation (Vinacomin) to trigger some of activities such as pilot exploration and coal mining on the coal basin.

 

In terms of human resources, Thai Binh has over one million people of working age, accounting for 60.1 percent of the population, which includes 28 percent of the training workers. In the province, there are three universities, four colleges and a number of secondary schools and vocational training schools. The province has 43 vocational training schools with the average size of more than 25,000 trainees per year.

 

Thai Binh is the traditional land of revolution with many nationally ranking monuments such as Keo Pagoda, Tran Dynasty Historical Areas, Dong Bang Temple, Tien La Temple, Le Quy Don Church, President Ho Chi Minh Souvenir Area, and Nguyen Duc Canh Monument. Thai Binh is now putting the tourism resorts such as Con Vanh, Con Den, and Dong Minh on master plans for development of culture and coastal tourism resorts.

 

Thai Binh has favourable systems of communication, road networks, waterways and rural infrastructure. On average, the density of road network is 3.72 kilometres and all province and district roads are asphalted. As planned, in the next time, Thai Binh has some important transport routes crossing by including the coastal highway known as the economic corridor of the coastal provinces of the Southern Red River Delta, the Thai Binh- Ha Nam highway (already started), railroads, the highway across Nam Dinh, Thai Binh and Hai Phong (planned after 2020) which will promote the provincial economy and attract investment. Currently, the government is building the Hai Phong International Gateway Port in Lach Huyen, which will be the largest container port in the country, just 30km from Thai Binh.

 

It should be noted that the government has approved Thai Binh’s Master Plan of the socio-economic development in 2020. Currently, the province is building the coastal economic zone at the first phase (10,000 ha planned) and developing 15 industrial parks and 43 industrial parks in the district and city (by 2020) with total area of ​​4,399 ha. Some of industrial parks such as Nguyen Duc Canh, Phuc Khanh have occupancy rate from 85 percent to 95 percent. Some other industrial parks such as Song Tra, Cau Nghin, and Tien Hai have occupancy rate from 30 percent to 60 percent and are attracting more investment.

 

Thai Binh, in coordination with PVN and Vinacomin, is constructing Thai Binh Power Centre at My Loc commune, Thai Thuy District (located in the economic zones of coastal provinces) and 4 units with a capacity of 1,800 MW with a total investment of about VND1.2 billion. It is expected that by 2014, the Centre will kick off unit No.1. As of 2012, there were a total of 633 investment projects in the province, with a total registered capital of VND72,536 billion and total number of 136,500 workers.

Also, a number of investment projects in key industries such as Thai Binh Power Centre, Nitrate Ammonium production plant, Gas Pipelines to develop the Tien Hai Industrial Parks are about to be completed in the near future. This will be a big advantage to increase investment in the Thai Binh in the upcoming time.

 

In recent years, Thai Binh has actively organised many investment promotion conferences including the Thai Binh Investment Promotion Conference held in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Nam Dinh. In addition, the province has also organised many field trips and promotion activities to study and promote investment from countries such as China, Japan, Singapore and some European countries.

 

In particular, in January 2013, the Provincial People's Committee successfully organised the investment promotion conferences in Japan and South Korea. Many small and medium-sized enterprises of Japan and Korea attended the conferences and showed their interests in finding out investment opportunities in Thai Binh. After the field trips and promotion activities, there was a group of companies from Japan and Korea coming Thai Binh for further investment opportunities.

 

Recently, Thai Binh People's Committee has signed a cooperation agreement with Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) to develop programmes to promote the reform of administrative procedures, improve investment environment, facilitate the manufacturing and business operation, organise capacity training courses to improve their organisational capacity, production and business management skills for local businesses, carry out promotion activities and promote trade and tourism of Thai Binh on VCCI's website and magazine. In the period 2001 to 2011, Thai Binh had average economic growth rate of 11.5 percent per year. The economic structure has shifted positively, while industry and services accounted for 68 percent of the province's GDP.

 

In 2013, Thai Binh continues to put its investment promotion activities in priority with the aim of attracting capital from domestic and foreign companies, investing and developing business operation and production, building the infrastructure, building a new rural model, and promoting the economic growth of the province. In the future, the province is actively attracting projects selectively to bring high economic efficiency, particularly the projects in the priority list and the projects with large investment, high tech and environmental friendliness.

 

In addition, the province will cooperate with the Japanese consultants to review the overall of master plan and construction to set the basis for socio-economic development by 2020. The province will strive to increase the occupancy rate of the industrial clusters and industrial parks and develop new coastal industrial zones. In terms of investment areas, the province focuses on attracting investment in Song Tra Industrial Park, Cau Nghin Industrial Park, Tien Hai Industrial Park and other industrial parks and industrial complexes.

 

In terms of policies and procedures related to investment attraction, Thai Binh continues to implement the policies issued such as incentives to attract investment in the province in accordance with Decision 09/2012 / QD-PC, dated 10/03/2012 of the Thai Binh People's Committee, which includes the financial incentives for levelling and supporting for labour training and providing the supports and preferential policies on the land rent, investment projects in disadvantaged areas. The province continues to build policy frameworks and create incentives for investors to build the infrastructure of industrial zones and coastal industrial parks and other projects with significant socio- economic development.

 

The Provincial People's Committee will finish amending Decision 19/2009/QD-UBND for a single-window mechanisms to issue the licensing for investment activities. The province will increase investment in infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure in industrial zones and industrial clusters, and accelerate the construction of infrastructure of the Gia Le Industrial Park and other industrial clusters with funding from the national budget. The province continues to implement the training courses and support for businesses, coordinate with ministries and central agencies, VCCI, and economic institutions, business associations, and other training centres to organize professional training courses for businesses in order to enhance knowledge, management skills and to help foster and improve the professional skills of the staff and employees of local businesses.