Unleashing resources, developing Binh Phuoc rapidly and sustainably

To unlock local potential advantages after the adoption of the revised Binh Phuoc Provincial Planning for the 2021 - 2030 period, with a vision to 2050, and the Action Plan for implementation of the Planning, Binh Phuoc has kept speeding up administrative reform and digital transformation, with focus on removing bottlenecks in attracting investment capital and improving the business climate. Doing so, the province will mobilize resources to accelerate the economy and make breakthroughs in the years to come. Our reporter has an interview on this issue with Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Investment of Binh Phuoc province.

What tasks and solutions is Binh Phuoc province trying to accelerate the public investment disbursement?

Determining that accelerating public investment capital is of utmost importance to successfully achieving socioeconomic development goals and tasks, from the beginning of 2024, the Provincial People's Committee launched an emulation movement called “Accelerating public investment disbursement in the province.” Despite great determination and endeavor, the allocation and disbursement of public investment fund remains limited: Reaching 18.8% in the first five months of 2024, lower than the national average of 22.34% and down 5.6 percentage points from the same period in 2023. Sluggish real estate market, incomplete settlement of existing and emerging difficulties, slow site clearance, unfocused capital allocation and some weak project managers, investors and contractors are cited as main reasons for this reality.

To further speed up this process, on June 6, 2024, the Provincial People's Committee issued Directive 05/CT-UBND on quicker implementation and disbursement of public investment capital in 2024 with the following contents: Requesting secretaries of the District/Town/City Party Committees, heads of provincial agencies, chairpersons of District/Town/City People's Committees, directors of the Binh Phuoc Construction Investment Project Management Board, and investors to uphold responsibility, direct, lead and implement the proposed tasks and solutions more drastically, promptly and effectively.

The Provincial People's Committee established a working group to review and integrate difficulties and obstacles for timely actions to accelerate public investment disbursement. In particular, the province is determined to transfer cadres who are afraid of making mistakes, afraid of assuming responsibility and inhibit the performance of public tasks.

With the highest determination and effort, Binh Phuoc strives to disburse over 95% of targeted public investment capital in 2024 assigned by the Government and stated in the resolutions of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Council to speed up technical and social infrastructure development, with emphasis on driving localities, to attract investors and support economic growth.

What is your perspective on direct investment attraction in the province in recent years?

In the three years from 2021 to 2023, investment flows into Binh Phuoc improved significantly, especially FDI with 146 projects and US$1.49 billion of total registered capital.

In 2023 alone, Binh Phuoc attracted 48 projects and US$824 million from new and existing projects, 32.4% more projects and 5.3 times more value from 2022, equal to 275% of the target. By the end of 2023, the province licensed 410 FDI projects with US$4.245 billion of registered investment capital.

Among 410 FDI projects, two are notably giant projects. CPV FOOD Co., Ltd invested US$110 million to build a meat processing and preserving facility with an annual capacity of 170,400 tons, which has been put into effective operation and provided high-quality, safe chicken products for the domestic market and for export. Haohua (Vietnam) Co., Ltd invested US$500 million in a tire factory factory with a yearly capacity of 14.4 million sets of tires. The project is being prepared for investment and expected to be put into operation from April 2025 to consume and increase the value of rubber latex products in the locality.

In 2024, the province has kept promoting and attracting investors at domestic and foreign economic forums and conferences. However, due to many subjective and objective factors, the result did not come up to expectations. In the first six months of the year, the licensed FDI value was US$82.5 million (from 11 projects), equal to 20.6% of the annual plan.

With the determination to regain economic growth momentum and attract more investment capital, the early completion of the revised Binh Phuoc Provincial Planning for the 2021 - 2030 period, with a vision to 2050, and the Action Plan for implementation of this Planning is the basis for alluring foreign investment in key projects and areas with outstanding competitive advantages.

According to the Binh Phuoc Province Planning for the 2021 - 2030 period, with a vision to 2025 which clearly figures out capabilities, advantages, development orientations and global investment shifting trends that are opening up opportunities for the province, what fields and areas are needed to be prioritized and promoted to draw investment for development in the coming time?

Located in the southern key economic zone, with convenient traffic connectivity, the largest land area in the south (6,873.56 km2) and abundant human resources, Binh Phuoc possesses potential, distinct advantages and outstanding investment opportunities.

According to the planning, by 2030, Binh Phuoc will become a modern, effective and sustainable industrial province. To achieve this goal, the province is stepping up the construction of key traffic routes such as National Highway 13, National Highway 14 and Provincial Road 741 connecting Southeast - Southwest regions with Central Highlands provinces, Binh Duong, Tay Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City and Cambodia through Hoa Lu International Border Gate. The province is completing procedures to start construction on Western North - South Expressway and Gia Nghia (Dak Nong) - Chon Thanh (Binh Phuoc) Expressway.

In general, Binh Phuoc will develop industry quickly and sustainably, with priority given to industries with high added value like processing, manufacturing and supporting industries, renewable energy, construction materials and information technology. The province will expand and develop new industrial zones.

Industrially, the province will give priority to attracting downstream processing projects into industrial parks; develop three key industrial groups (cashew processing, rubber - wood and food). Industrial manufacturing projects are also focused on. Supporting industries are promoted to form large production facilities, capable of training, research, leading and supporting the development of economic sectors. In addition, it is necessary to attract renewable energy projects and construction material production projects.

Binh Phuoc will also concentrate on developing agriculture towards sectoral clusters and value chains by promoting comparative advantages and accelerating scientific and technological application. The province will develop commercial agriculture, forestry and fishery according to VietGAP and GlobalGAP standards. It will form large-scale centralized agricultural production areas to grow products with high commercial value and competitive advantages like rubber, cashew, pepper and fruit. The locality will develop agriculture together with new rural development.

Trade and services will be driven by distribution, retail, transportation and logistics. Binh Phuoc will draw investment capital to develop commercial and service infrastructure like trade centers, supermarkets, convenience stores, wholesale markets and countryside markets. It will focus on developing and improving the operational efficiency of Hoa Lu Border Economic Zone and actively foster domestic trade, e-commerce, import and export, and border trade.

Regarding tourism, the province will create attractive and distinctive tourism products; focus on wooing large tourism firms, especially tourism infrastructure investors and operators; build 4- or 5-star hotels and golf courses; and build and develop domestic and international tourism routes, especially routes connected with Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

Binh Phuoc will continue to implement the "4 good foundations" motto (good infrastructure, good human resources, good policies and good public services) to become the new "destination" of FDI capital flows.

The province has introduced many mechanisms and policies to boost business development, notably Plan 366/KH-UBND dated December 14, 2023 on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and implementing the action program for improvement of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) in 2024. Could you elaborate on this issue?

In 2021-2025, Binh Phuoc has striven to attract about VND170 trillion of private and FDI fund, of which VND120 trillion will be mobilized from the private sector (including public-private partnership (PPP) fund). The province aims to establish 1,100 new enterprises in 2024 and expects the number of enterprises resuming operations to grow by at least 10% from 2023.

To achieve the above goals, the province is carrying out many solutions to remove obstacles and actively supporting SMEs. Specifically, SMEs are supported up to 50% of the value of consulting contracts to establish intellectual property rights; consulted on management and development of products and services protected by their intellectual property rights (not exceeding VND100 million per contract a year); supported up to 50% of the value of consulting contracts for search, selection, decoding and transfer of technologies suitable for them (not exceeding VND100 million per contract a year); granted 100% of the cost of equipment use at technical facilities, incubators and co-working spaces (not exceeding VND20 million a year); and subsidized up to 50% for the cost of facility rents in incubators and co-working spaces (not exceeding VND5 million a month).

Investment incentive and support policies are regularly reviewed, updated, revised and supplemented to match actual situations. In addition, to support businesses and woo investors, especially private investors, Binh Phuoc prioritizes the effective implementation of important breakthrough programs on administrative procedure reform, infrastructure construction, and human resource development. Every year, the province organizes conferences to assess its administrative reform indices such as PCI, PAR and PAPI to seek solutions to improve the favorable business environment. At the same time, it will maintain meetings contacts to grasp business situations to have directions on business support.

Thank you so much!

Song Uyên (Vietnam Business Forum)