Agile and Active in Investment Promotion

Hoa Binh province’s innovative investment promotion has given businesses and investors a full picture of potential strengths and opportunities when investing in the province. Thus, it has helped introduce the image of Hoa Binh province as a friendly, safe and effective destination for investors. Our reporter has an interview with Mr. Pham Anh Quy, Director of the Hoa Binh Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center.

Discovering Hoa Binh lake is a new feature attracting domestic and foreign tourists

Could you please describe the remarkable results that the Hoa Binh Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center has achieved over the past seven years of operation?

Established under Decision 258/QD-TTg dated February 27, 2015 of the Prime Minister, in seven years of operation, Hoa Binh Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center has achieved many positive results. Most notably, the center was assigned by the Provincial People's Committee to lead investment, trade and tourism promotion in the province, in other localities in the country and in foreign countries; accompany and support enterprises and investors in Hoa Binh province to deal with difficulties; build a database about investment, trade and tourism information of Hoa Binh province.

In 2022, the center advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue the Investment Promotion Program and the Trade Promotion Program in 2022 and 2023; released investment promotion publications and clips like “Investment Potential and Strengths in Hoa Binh” publication and “Hoa Binh - Sustainable investment destination” reportage clip; advised and issued the regulation on coordination between the center and other agencies and sectors in investment, trade and tourism promotion. The center also advised on successfully organizing the provincial working union for trade and investment promotion and multifaceted cooperation program between Vietnam and the Consular Area in Fukuoka, Japan; advised on building and completing the demo software "Database, digital map on Hoa Binh investment promotion" for individuals, organizations, businesses and investors with basic information on location, topographical characteristics, land, environment, technical infrastructure, social and economic infrastructure, and the list of projects seeking investment capital in various fields and localities. At the same time, it introduced potential and advantages for local development; regularly contacted local businesses and investors to guide, support and remove difficulties and problems, and handle administrative procedures.

In addition, the center advised and successfully organized the Investment Promotion Conference 2016 together with the first Upland Market Day and the second "Hoa Binh Upland Market Day" 2022 when Hoa Binh province hosted a SEAGAMES 31 bicycle racing event.

In the context of fierce rivalry for investment flows, Hoa Binh province remains significantly attractive to investors. What has made businesses choose Hoa Binh as their destination?

Given strong competition for investment fund among localities, Hoa Binh province is always attractive to domestic and foreign investors because of its potential advantages and abundant resources as follows:

Regarding geographical location and traffic, Hoa Binh is the gateway for exchanges between Northwest provinces with Northern Delta provinces, the capital city of Hanoi, the Northeast development triangle of Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh and Northern Central provinces. The province has a fairly synchronous traffic network with many important and convenient roads for socioeconomic development.

Hoa Binh also has fertile soil for strong development of afforestation, industrial crops, medicinal herbs, fruit trees and high-tech agricultural production. Many famous local brands include Cao Phong orange, Tan Lac red grapefruit, Sachi tea, Hoa Binh tangerine and Son Thuy - Kim Boi longan.

At the same time, Hoa Binh is endowed with a network of rivers, streams and lakes widely distributed in all districts and cities, including the 151-km Da River flowing through Mai Chau, Da Bac, Cao Phong and Tan Lac districts and Hoa Binh City. Hoa Binh Lake is about 9,000 ha, storing 9.8 billion cubic meters of water. In addition, the province has 41 reservoirs with a capacity of more than 1 million cubic meters of water. This is a favorable condition for developing agricultural production, aquaculture and many other fields.

With respect to forest resources, Hoa Binh has over 236,000 ha of forestland, with a forest coverage of 51.54%, of which natural forests account for 59.7% and planted forests account for 40.3%. In particular, Hoa Binh also has three nature reserves: Phu Canh, Thuong Tien and Hang Kia - Pa Co with many rare and precious animal species and plant varieties of biological value, research and tourism development value.

With rich mineral resources such as limestone, coal, kaolin and mineral water, Hoa Binh province has advantages in developing mining, mineral processing and cement production industries.

Besides, Hoa Binh has diverse natural tourism resources, including rivers, lakes, mineral springs, natural caves, nature reserves, and national parks. With its charming landscape, Hoa Binh Reservoir for Hoa Binh hydroelectric plant is an especially attractive destination for many tourists.

Needless to say, Hoa Binh province has many potential advantages to strongly develop many economic fields such as tourism, services, agriculture and industry, as well as open up many attractive investment opportunities for domestic and international businesses.

Hoa Binh built an active, targeted, oriented and focused investment promotion program in line with the sectoral and field-specific plannings and development orientations of the province in the 2021 - 2030 period and diversified investment promotion methods to draw more investment funds. Would you be kind enough to tell us more about this?

On December 13, 2021, the Hoa Binh Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center advised the Hoa Binh Provincial People’s Committee to launch the 2022 Investment Promotion Program and, in 2022, advised the committee to issue the Investment Promotion Program for 2023. Accordingly, investment promotion will be directed as follows:

Strengthening focused, targeted communication, promotion and introduction of the investment environment; maintaining traditional partners while expanding and looking for potential ones, attracting reputable investors with large-scale production and business projects and infrastructure and urban development projects to serve as the nucleus and generate spillover effects on local socioeconomic development and strongly attract domestic and foreign investment fund.

Paying closer attention to directing administrative reform, focusing on administrative procedure reform in a bid to reduce by at least 30% investment-related administrative procedures.

Directing and accelerating implementation master plans, sector-specific plans, programs and schemes, with focus on land master plans and detailed plans for the 2021 - 2030 period, and the provincial planning for the period up to 2030, with a vision to 2050; Building a database and digital map on investment promotion to serve as a basis for attracting investment resources for socioeconomic development in the province.

Improving the effect of communication, advertising and investment promotion on the mass media, especially the central media channels, reputable websites and social networks that are attracting the public attention of many domestic and foreign companies and investors; further boosting investment promotion with strategic partners in Asia such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan (China); researching and expanding investment promotion in other regions and countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Taking advantage of support from central agencies, international organizations, and business associations in Vietnam and foreign nations to firmly execute objectives and solutions on investment attraction in the province; and joining investment promotion programs launched by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and central and local agencies.

Upgrading the capacity of investment promotion officers to make sure that investment procedures are carried out in accordance with the Investment Law 2020 and current laws.

By executing the above tasks, the Hoa Binh Investment, Trade and Tourism Promotion Center will help build and create an open and transparent investment environment in order to strongly attract investment resources and create best conditions to support and side with investors when they do business in the province.

Thank you very much!

By Duy Binh, Vietnam Business Forum