Long An Province Promoting Internal Forces

Long An has developed and reformed. It has streamlined administrative procedures for investors arriving in Long An. The Department of Planning & Investment is one of the first units in the province to apply the ISO 9001:2000 quality system for State management over infrastructure construction, planning, socio-culture, business registration and investment licensing.

To date, Long An Province has 2,695 domestic enterprises with a combined registered capital of VND6,149 billion (US$384 million) and 111 foreign-invested projects valued US$810 million. In the first six months of this year, the department received documents for 112 projects including 25 newly approved projects (needing 533.75 ha of land) and 31 expanding projects. Also in six months, 15 foreign-invested projects were licensed with a total investment capital of US$85.7 million and a needed area of 900.7 ha. Six of them have been approved for land lease of 15.2 ha while the others are under negotiation.

 

In fact, domestic companies make up a large majority of the business community in Long An. To call investment and implement the Investment Law and Corporate Law, Long An Province will issue policies to unify administrative procedures for land issues, construction, business registration and investment licensing, and promulgate regulations to resolve issues related to many organs and levels of governments.

 

The increasing investment levels of both domestic and foreign investors raised many issues for the local government to resolve. Noteworthy is the environment issue and environment treatment, investment management, resettlement, houses for workers, supply of well-trained labourers for industrial zones, policies to guarantee smooth operations of enterprises and administrative procedure reforms. To facilitate the development of the business community, the Long An Province People’s Committee has introduced many resolutions to create an easy-to-approach investment environment and a secure legal corridor for investors. The priority works consist of administrative reform, sectoral planning, environment pollution limitation, investment incentive policies, and others.

 

The labour force in Long An has nearly 900,000 people, including 25 per cent of trained workers. The trained worker volume will account for 40 per cent by 2010 to meet the requirement of the industrialisation and modernisation process. However, the ambition of the province is to fill up 3,000-4,000 ha of land in industrial zones by 2010. The labour supply will fail to keep pace with this plan. Therefore, Long An Province has cooperated in training with adjacent localities like Mekong Delta region to meet the upcoming demand for labour forces.