Leading Light in Investment Attraction

Gia Lai province has adopted various approaches to attract investment sources for different sectors like high-tech agriculture, downstream agricultural processing, solar power, wind power and biomass power.

Investment inflows motivate socioeconomic development

The close leadership and direction of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People’s Council and the Provincial People’s Committee and the ongoing effort of all agencies, people and businesses in the province have helped Gia Lai successfully achieve its economic development targets in 2015-2020.

The gross regional domestic product (GRDP) growth reached 7.83% a year in the 2015-2020 period, exceeding the plan of 7.5%. Per capita income was estimated at VND52.54 million in 2020, an increase of 1.5 times over 2015. The business community is reportedly making a great contribution to this development (in 2020, the province had over 7,000 active enterprises with a total registered capital of VND101 trillion, an increase of 2.3 times against 2015).

In the 2016-2020 period, Gia Lai province called for a combined investment fund of VND832,925 billion (US$36 billion) for 515 projects (compared with 104 projects and VND 23,948 billion in the 2011-2015 period), representing a 5-fold growth in investment projects and 36-fold growth of investment capital needed. As many as 231 projects were licensed for investment of VND66.5 trillion (compared with 38 projects and VND1.7 trillion in 2011-2015); 108 blueprint projects are being procedurally prepared and registered for about VND50,928 billion of investment capital (giant projects include high-tech forestry zone, high-tech agriculture park, tourism projects, rubber tire projects, conveyor belt projects and dry ports); and investors registered 176 solar and wind power projects with a combined installed capacity of 24,300 MWp and an estimated investment capital of over VND715,497.5 billion.

Thus, these investment projects have helped increase incomes for the State Budget, provide jobs for local people, stabilize the economy, strengthen security and order and speed up urbanization. Business development has also helped reduce the poverty rate.

Diversifying investment attraction methods and fields

Remarking on the province’s investment attraction approach in the past time, Mr. Ho Phuoc Thanh, Director of Gia Lai Department of Planning and Investment, said that the province has actively diversified approaches to access more investors; sped up investment promotion via investment promotion conferences and seminars in Vietnam and in foreign countries; well prepared for ground clearance to give space to investors; diversified communications; enhanced information transparency on investment policies and plans, and announced the list of investment projects for people and enterprises.

The firm direction of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People’s Council and the Provincial People’s Committee on investment promotion is also a positive factor. “The Provincial People's Committee established the Gia Lai Investment Promotion Council, chaired by the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, assisted by the Director of the Department of Planning and Investment and attended by directors/heads of concerned agencies/localities as members. The province issued decisions on the order of investment projects in Gia Lai province, combined with many other procedures, to reduce the time to settle administrative procedures for investors,” he said.

In addition, administrative reform has been assigned priority. The province established the Gia Lai Public Administrative Center at the Post Office of Gia Lai to handle most administrative procedures for people and businesses. The province promulgated many mechanisms and policies to attract investment capital, reduce costs, modify business conditions, and reform administrative procedures to provide an enabling investment environment for investors to invest in the province. The Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) has been increasingly improved: Scoring 56.83 points to rank 47 out of 63 provinces in 2015 and 65.34 points to rank 30 in 2019 (climbing 17 places in five years).

Six focuses to enhance investment attraction

- Further stepping up of administrative procedure reform for greater simplicity, increasing the rate of online public services of Level 3 and Level 4; and improving the business environment to bring Gia Lai province’s PCI standing to Top 20 by 2025).

- Regularly updating and guiding enterprises to carry out procedures according to newly issued laws on planning, investment, bidding, auction, land, public property and real estate trading, so as to help enterprises save time in handling administrative procedures.

- Calling and selecting projects applying modern advanced technology to agricultural production and business. In particular, it is necessary to draw projects using cutting-edge technology and stimulate investment in key areas such as crop varieties, post-harvest preservation and processing, organic and traceable food supply chains.

- Building new breed research and testing centers, and creating favorable conditions for businesses to access seed resources and scientific research results obtained by institutes, universities, experts and researchers.

- Effectively implementing resolutions on conservation and development of medicinal plants in Gia Lai province to 2025, with a vision to 2030; developing vegetable and fruit farming in Gia Lai province to 2030, with a vision to 2040, with specific action plans.

- Building irrigation works to deal with droughts and facilitate agricultural restructuring. Investment priority is given to large irrigation works such as Ea Thul Lake (Ia Pa district) that waters 7,700 ha, Lo Stream (K’bang district) that waters 1,500 ha, and Dak Po To Lake (Mang Yang district) that irrigates 2,150 ha of cropland. The province will increase investment in large-scale infrastructure projects by engaging various sources of funding. Typical projects include National Highway 19 linking Quy Nhon Port to Le Thanh International Border Gate, and the Ayun Pa - Ea Hleo Road that connects Gia Lai and Phu Yen provinces. These traffic routes will help reduce transport costs and time. Besides, the province will focus priority resources for Pleiku City development, turning it into the nucleus of development of the province, and strengthen driving regions in the east (An Khe Town), in the southeast (Ayun Pa Town), in the southwest (Le Thanh International Border Gate) to generate ripple development effects on the rest of the province.

Source: Vietnam Business Forum