Mr. Phan Quoc Son, Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Investment
According to Mr. Son, in 2021, Thua Thien Hue was honored to be one of ten provinces and cities having the leading Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) scores in Vietnam, and being the leading province in the country on the Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI).
It is the result of continuous efforts to improve the business investment environment. It is hoped that with the careful attention of local leaders in innovation and creating the most favorable conditions for investors, Thua Thien Hue will be a "good land" to attract domestic and foreign investors, creating a significant breakthrough in the socio-economic development of the province.
Can you tell us about the initial achievements relating to attracting investment over the past time?
Despite certain difficulties in investment promotion due to the impact of the pandemic, in 2021, the Provincial People's Committee approved the investment policy for 47 projects with a total investment capital of nearly 20,000 billion VND. Among these, 32 investors are approved to implement the project with a total registered capital of more than 14,500 billion VND.
For FDI projects, the whole province issued new investment registration certificates (IRCs) for 4 foreign investment projects with a total registered capital of $ 169.1 million (equivalent to 3,873 trillion VND).
Particularly in the first 8 months of this year, the province has attracted 20 domestic projects with a total registered investment of 8,244.5 billion VND. And there are three newly registered foreign direct investment projects with a total of $ 256.2 million.
With such results, has the investment promotion been prepared carefully right from the stage of promulgating the investment project portfolio?
The preparation for investment promotion of Thua Thien Hue province is focused on innovating in the direction of having aims, focuses and specific objectives that are suitable to the potential, strengths and development planning of the locality.
Accordingly, in order to increase the readiness for investment promotion, the Provincial People's Committee has approved and issued the documents approving the investment policy of the projects with sufficient relevant information for investors having interest in them to carry out research. Besides, the province has issued a list of investment projects to attract investors to invest in Chan May economic zone and provincial industrial zones.
The signed cooperation agreements create new opportunities in attracting investment. Photo: the provincial electronic portal
Investment promotion projects calling for investment are approved by the Provincial People's Committee with specific criteria on the basis of reviewing and surveying the current status, determining area, scale, planning and related issues. This is to ensure that the action is compliant with the province's development orientation in order to promote the province's competitiveness, and ensure the basic foundations for selecting qualified investors, eliminating investors with limited reputation and ability.
So how is the construction of an information system and database for investment promotion activities prepared?
The province has built a database of digital maps for projects calling for investment across the province to help investors access and update information and locations of projects calling for investment in a convenient and easy way.
Investment promotion documents are coded with QR Code for easy access for investors in addition to some documents that need printing to serve investment promotion events or direct working sessions with investors.
Currently, the Center of Investment Promotion and Enterprise Support under the Department of Planning and Investment deploys software to manage enterprises investing outside the province's budget after having been completed, and coordinates with specialized units of the provincial People's Committee, localities, and investors to update, exploit and use the software effectively. At the same time, the Center also continues to improve and update the presentations, introduction, and promotion of Thua Thien Hue province in multiple languages, including Vietnamese, English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.
In the new situation, what are the specific adjustments to the propaganda and promotion of the current investment promotion activities, sir?
In addition, the strategies to promote and market the potentials, strengths, and investment opportunities of the locality are increasingly diversified, such as increasing the frequency of the appearance of topics related to investment promotion in newspapers and magazines in recent years in-country and abroad.
The province also promotes the introduction of investment opportunities to big investors through organizing conferences, seminars, or directly visiting the headquarters of large enterprises and corporations in the localities.
At the same time, the province aims to build a cooperating- partner system to connect investment promotion through partners of investors, and infrastructure businesses. Besides, it is important to promote the investment through provincial investment promotion representatives in some key markets such as Thailand and Korea.
The year 2022 has marked an important year in the field of investment promotion when the province in particular and the whole country, in general, are in the process of adapting to the new normal situation after the covid 19 pandemic. Many domestic and foreign investment promotion activities have begun to restart, can you share about the recent investment promotion activities of the province?
Currently, the frequency of participation and organization of investment promotion activities is being restarted. As soon as the policy of reopening tourism took effect, Thua Thien Hue successfully organized the conference called "Meet Thua Thien Hue - a green province: Identifying the future of green economic growth”, attended and worked with large corporations at the conference named "Meet Korea - Central and Highlands Region".
In addition, the province has participated in investment and trade promotion within the framework of the Vietnam-Czech-European Economic Cooperation and Investment Forum in the Czech Republic and the program to promote trade, investment, and multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and Japan's Kyushu region.
In order for Thua Thien Hue to become a "dock" for investors, the investment environment must be focused on, so what investments have the province made in improving the investment environment?
The business environment is concerned with drastic directions to improve and enhance the competitiveness of the province through accompanying businesses, such as the establishment of 4 interdisciplinary working groups directly commanded by the Chairman and the Vice Chairmen of the Provincial People's Committee in order to monitor enterprises directly and solve difficulties together with enterprises.
In the next phase, the province is moving to concretize one more step of the working group, which will assign responsibilities to specialists with the task of actively supporting investors in completing relevant procedures, acting as a focal point to support investors to work with departments and branches to handle each problem, promptly update and report to the heads of working groups to promptly handle requested contents.
In addition, in order to facilitate investors to learn more about the investment environment of the province, specialized units has to regularly update the latest investment and legal content as a tool for investors to research and learn on websites, Facebook, etc. The units have added and updated the set of investment promotion documents in five languages, including Vietnamese, English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, and made DVD discs introducing the general planning of the province. Besides, they have publicized socio-economic development zoning and plans, and made a portfolio of investment attraction fields as well as prioritized investment projects.
Thank you, sir !
Story and photos: Hoang Anh