In the eyes of investors, Binh Dinh province is always an attractive destination with a dynamic economy and an open investment environment. Acting as a growth driver of the central key economic region, Binh Dinh is pushing to attract investment in a new direction and refresh its image in the eyes of investors. Mr Nguyen Thuc Dinh, Director of the Department of Planning and Investment talked with Vietnam Business Forum about measures Binh Dinh implemented to attract investors and how to develop the fields where the province has competitive advantage. Quoc Hung reports.
How do you assess the investment environment investment attraction results of Binh Dinh province since the implementation of the new Investment Law? What are Binh Dinh’s unique advantages in attracting investment and how has the province promoted those strengths?
Since the implementation of the new Investment Law, Binh Dinh has changed mechanisms and policies step by step to encourage and support investment in the direction of openness and transparency, and create a more favourable business environment for domestic and foreign investors. Therefore, the province has raised large amounts of internal and external capital for the economic development of the province.
So far, Binh Dinh province has 47 FDI projects with total registered capital of US$690 million, including 33 wholly foreign invested projects and 14 joint ventures. Binh Dinh has licensed 450 domestic projects with a total registered capital of more than VND70 trillion.
Although located far from the two major economic centres of the country, Binh Dinh makes good use of the advantage of proximity to the sea, serving the Central Highlands provinces, Southern Laos and Northeastern Cambodia and Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) through Quy Nhon International Port and National Highway 19 connecting to Highway 14 in Vietnam and Highway 18B in Laos. This advantage has been promoted very effectively by the province through focusing on the construction and development of critical infrastructure such as the international port of Quy Nhon, Nhon Hoi Economic Zone and Phu Cat Airport, to attract domestic and foreign investors. Thus many foreign investors have chosen Binh Dinh as the place for production and export.
Constructing an open investment environment and accelerating administration reform are also key tasks for attracting investment. Over the years how has the province focused on these issues?
The provincial People's Committee has issued a number of documents for the transparency of administrative procedures. In particular, since 2007, the province has built “one stop shop” for enterprise establishment, which has been highly appreciated by many businesses and professionals.
The province has issued and implemented a number of policies related to land, construction and investment regarding administrative reform and improving the investment environment. In particular, Decision 12/2011/QD-UBND dated June 2, 2011 of the Provincial People’s Committee dealt with coordination mechanisms to resolve administrative procedures for foreign investment in the construction of industrial parks and zones in the province. This is the result of collaboration between the People's Committee of Binh Dinh Province and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to develop procedures to coordinate administrative steps for the construction of enterprises, and specifies the responsibilities of the province's state management agencies in implementing administrative procedures for citizens and organizations.
On the other hand, to create equal investment environment for investors, the Department of Planning and Investment and Provincial Economic Zone Management Board actively reviews investment projects already granted investment certificates or approved in accordance with investment policy; slowly implemented projects behind scheduled commitments, or investors already having sites but unable to implement construction due to limited financial capability, will have their licenses revoked by the Provincial People’s Committee.
Lack of planning will be very difficult to call for investment. How does the province remove these bottlenecks?
Indeed, planning which is not synchronous or on time makes it very difficult for the socio-economic development of the province in general and investment in particular. Therefore, Binh Dinh Province has been actively preparing and recently has gotten approved by the Prime Minister a series of plans, such as the master plan for industrial development in Binh Dinh province in 2010 with a vision to 2020; development planning village of Binh Dinh Province to 2010 and vision to 2020; planning of industrial zones in Binh Dinh Province in 2010 and towards 2020; and socio-economic development master plan of Binh Dinh province towards 2020.
Immediately, to directly attract investment, Binh Dinh determined to take a step forward in preparing infrastructure (both social and economic), regarded it as the most practical preparation to invite investors to the province. In fact, the province has actively coordinated investment in transport infrastructure, postal and telecommunications, banking, industrial zones - industrial parks, economic zones; and simultaneously is interested in building team staff. In recent years, the province prioritized capital from the central and provincial budgets for investment in completing basic infrastructure in Nhon Hoi Economic Zone to prepare ground for investors. The province is also actively working with the Government, ministries and central agencies to upgrade airports, and called for non-state enterprises to set up high quality train route Ho Chi Minh City - Binh Dinh and vice versa. On aviation, there are 3 flights daily to Ho Chi Minh City and 4 per week to Hanoi.
In 2012 and following years, will the province have guidelines and measures to continue to attract investment in the province in unified, strong and more efficient way?
In 2012 and the coming years, the province will actively promote domestic and foreign investment by the central organization, and actively invite investment in a specific address, especially to attract economic investment in the maritime sector, a high potential field of the province. In addition it will also strengthen post-investment support for registered investors, and review the investment policy of projects unable to continue in order to call for and assign other investors with more capacity.
In 2012, Binh Dinh will boldly call for investment in the form of BT (Build-Transfer) for large projects, especially infrastructure projects. In addition to the province's major events such as the International Festival of Traditional Martial Arts, the Department of Planning and Investment will coordinate with relevant agencies to organize major events to promote the image of the province among domestic and foreign investors.
With this spirit, Binh Dinh has been an attractive destination for investors. Through this program, again I would like to introduce the things that Binh Dinh can do. I believe that in the future there will be more investors coming to Binh Dinh for surveys, to learn more about the investment and business environment and to see Binh Dinh's potential for development in the Central Coast region and the country.
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