The Deputy PM made the affirmation at the conference on promoting investment in the key central economic region, which was held in Hoi An city, the central province of Quang Nam on June 25-26.

The key central economic region includes Da Nang city, Quang Nam , Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh provinces.

Deputy PM Hai stressed that the region should continue implementing the government’s policies on the key central economic region’s socio-economic development in 2010 with a vision to 2020.

The Deputy PM also asked the region to speed up the construction of transport infrastructure, including roads, bridges and ports and focus on improving the quality of human resources to supply enough skilled workers to large industrial centres.

The conference was part of the national programme to attract and effectively use domestic and foreign investment in this region.

The event was a good opportunities for localities, investors to exchange information and boost cooperation in potential areas, including tourism, seaport services, industrial and economic zones.

The key central economic zone plays an important strategic position and serves as gate to the sea of the Central Highlands and sub-Mekong delta region in the East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC).

The region boats four out of 13 key economic zones with a deep water seaport system which plays as a backbone in attracting investment, especially foreign direct investment.

By the end of May this year, the region had attracted nearly 400 foreign investment projects with a registered capital of nearly 15 billion USD, making up 75 percent of the number of projects and 61 percent of capital of the whole central region and the Central Highlands.

Foreign investment contributed over 5 percent of the region’s GDP and generated jobs for about 60,000 people in the whole region.

In the 2007-2009 period, foreign direct investment capital poured into the region hit 11.3 billion USD, more than 4 folds of the combined figure of 19 previous years.

• Source: Vietnam+