Could you give a brief introduction of Hai Duong's investment situation in recent years?
Under the guideline of the Communist Party and the State of Vietnam on renovation (doi moi) and opening up the economy, the provincial XIII Party Congress approved the Resolution on carrying out the province’s plans of action, including the “Programme of attracting and using capital sources for development in 2001-2005.”
The People's Committee of Hai Duong province in April 2002 approved the programme "Creating a favourable investment environment, attracting all domestic and foreign investment sources to Hai Duong province" with the target of luring VND16,500 billion (over US$1.05 billion) in 2001-2005, including VND11,200 (US$717.94 million) from local sources and VND5,300 billion (US$339.74 million) in foreign investment. After four years of implementation, total realised capital in the province stood at VND15,728 billion (over US$1 billion), including VND10,838 billion from local sources and VND4,890 billion in foreign investment, fulfilling 95.3 per cent of the set target.
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Can you introduce measures that have positive impacts on investment attraction?
To effectively attract investment sources and contribute to ensuring yearly consecutive growths of GDP that is higher than the average GDP growth of the country and of the Northern Key Economic Area, Hai Duong province has applied and conducted some major measures as follows. Firstly, the province has focused on increasing the proportion of capital for infrastructure development; calling for capital sources from the Central government, foreign countries and enterprises to upgrade the systems of transport, electricity, post and telecommunication, residential area, and hotels; diversifying investment forms such as Build-Transfer (BT), Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), and offering capital to construction works to quickly establish some industrial parks and new urban areas with modern, completed infrastructure to better meet demands of domestic and foreign investors.
Secondly, the province will actively reform administrative procedures under the model of “one-stop-shop”, in line with the simple, transparent, and open orientation. This is considered an important solution to enhance the investment environment’s attractiveness. Hai Duong has tried to build up and train a group of experienced staff who are capable of settling all issues, from granting investment licences to state management activities after the licences have been granted. Strengthening state management activities after granting investment licences will create favourable conditions for enterprises to stabilise production and business, and the measure is a very important factor in calling for new investment projects because positive voices of investors operating in the province about the investment environment are the best way to attract further investment.
Hai Duong has also paid special attention to improving the quality of roads running to industrial parks, industrial complexes and enterprises, and the electricity supply to serve production and business purposes of enterprises, at the same time creating a close link between provincial departments and industries to boost site clearance progress.
What fields are getting priorities in calling for investment?
Hai Duong province has recently tried its utmost to draw investment in building and developing socio-economic infrastructure and establishing production and trading enterprises with different ownership types, including processing agricultural products and foodstuff, garment, footwear, high-class construction materials and new construction materials, electronics, building hi-tech zone, sophisticated machinery production, tourism and high-ranking hotels.
At present, the province is in need of priorities in official development assistance (ODA) from the Vietnamese Government, international financial institutions, and foreign countries to inject in construction of roads, factories and water drainage and supply systems, waste treatment, healthcare and education, irrigation systems, forestation, poverty eradication, administrative reform, improvement of capacity of officials and staff, information technology development and the fight against social evils. The province has always updated the list of projects calling for foreign direct investment (FDI), and recently submitted the list of 24 projects calling for FDI in 2005-2010 for approval.
What is the implementation of ODA projects on building and upgrading infrastructure in the province?
Apart from FDI flow, Hai Duong has paid great attention to ODA sources to focus on building and upgrading infrastructure for socio-economic development, creating a perfect foundation for the development of production industries, enterprises and new business lines.
The Government has allowed the province to receive and undertake the following ODA projects: Japanese-funded National Highway 5A, the clean water supply system in Hai Duong City funded by Japan, the water drainage and wastewater treatment system in Hai Duong City funded by Germany, a Spanish-funded organic fertiliser plant that will use and treat waste in Hai Duong City, producing fertilisers from animal husbandry’s waste funded by the Czech Republic, and the Japanese-funded clean water supply system in Sao Do small town, Chi Linh district.
What are the province's targets and strategies in international cooperation and foreign investment attraction in the future?