Mr Cao Tien Dung, Director of the Department of Planning and Investment of Dong Nai province, shared his views on the province's investment attraction strategy for the coming years. Quoc Hung reports.
Could you please introduce the investment attraction results of Dong Nai in recent years?
In the past years, despite facing plenty of difficulties, Dong Nai province continued to be one of the most attractive destinations to investors in Vietnam. Last year, domestic companies invested VND27,745.2 billion to set up new businesses and fund existing projects, up 47.7 per cent year on year. The province witnessed 3,179 business start-ups in the year, up 17.8 per cent over 2015. In the first quarter of 2017, the province had 769 new business start-ups with a total registered capital of VND12,200.4 billion. By the end of March 2017, over 27,090 enterprises in Dong Nai province were registered in the National Business Registration Information System.
In 2016, the province has attracted US$1,918.4 million of foreign direct investment (FDI), nearly doubling its annual plan. Particularly, 100 fresh projects with a total registered capital of US$1,091.7 million were granted investment certificates and 98 existing projects were allowed to add US$826.7 million to their capital base. In the first quarter of 2017, foreign investors invested US$382 million, fulfilling 40.2 per cent of the full-year plan and rising 74.7 per cent over the same period of 2016. As of March 31, 2017, the province had 1,685 FDI projects with a total capital of US$30.68 billion, including 1,268 valid projects with a total capital of US$25.84 billion.
Foreign investment projects in Dong Nai are mostly from South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. In 2016, the province carefully selected FDI projects, with priority given to high technology, support industry and environment friendly technology. Dong Nai has also successfully attracted investment capital for infrastructure development. 31 out of 35 large-scaled industrial parks have completed infrastructure construction, while four small-scale industrial zones have completed their infrastructure and 19 others are completing it. Investors have also been active in traffic construction projects.
What solutions will Dong Nai province adopt to enhance investment attraction results and improve its competitiveness in the coming time?
Dong Nai will continue to selectively approve investment projects, encourage the development of investment projects engaged in high-tech, supporting, energy-saving and environment-friendly industries and projects engaged in agriculture, infrastructure and services. It will continue to develop synchronous, modern infrastructure; concentrate on developing potential and knowledge-intensive services such as finance, banking, maritime, logistics, aeronautical technical services and commercial services; education and training; healthcare services; and audit, consulting and legal services. The province will further reform administrative procedures to shorten the time of receiving, processing and delivering results; and strengthen business - government dialogues in order to better support local businesses to tackle hardships in business operations.
Would you mind telling us more about the province’s viewpoint on attracting environment-friendly projects rather than attracting investment capital at any cost?
In recent years, and especially after Vietnam's accession to the WTO, sustainable development has been paid further attention by Dong Nai province. Since 2005, the locality has carefully selected investments with priority given to hi-tech industrial projects, supporting industries, environmentally friendly projects, while restricting labour-intensive and low value-added department.
In general, like in the past, the province will not attract investment at all costs in the forthcoming time, but focus on project quality in order to follow sustainable development orientation and green growth strategy. These orientations are in line with the Government's policy of economic restructuring and growth model change.
Vietnamese
October 2024
Hanoi