Thai enterprises, new partners of Nghe An

(Baonghean) - In recent years, with many solutions and preferential policies, Nghe An has attracted a number of effective projects from Thailand. Currently, there are new investment projects in the Southeast economic zone.

Thailand new economic shifts

In recent years, Thailand has shifted its economic development strategy from import substitution to export orientation and now harmoniously combining import substitution with export orientation; At the same time, it has shifted from prioritizing modern agriculture, high value-added products; developing light industry, processing for foreign countries and investing abroad; to developing heavy industry, automobiles, petrochemicals, and service economy.

Comrade Le Ngoc Hoa, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, presented gifts to representatives of the Thai Investment Agency. Photo by Nguyen Van Nam.

Thailand has always paid attention to improving the investment environment with synchronous policies, flexible and consistent adjustments in the spirit of ensuring market principles, having orientation and macro management of the state through economic tools; gradually reducing government investment, encouraging domestic private sector. In particular, since 2011, the Board of Investment of Thailand (BOI) has classified investment promotion activities into 7 groups: agriculture and agricultural products; mining, ceramics and base metals; light industry; metal products, transport equipment and machinery; electronics and electrical equipment industry; chemicals, plastics and paper; public services and utilities...

In Thailand, foreign investors are increasingly liberalized in investment; there are no restrictions on property and share ownership, land lease, withdrawal and remittance of foreign currency abroad.

Thailand also increasingly attaches importance to the use of comprehensive incentives in terms of tax exemption and reduction (in 2012, Thailand reduced the corporate income tax rate from 30% to 23% per year), labor supply, infrastructure and administrative procedures; gradually reducing regional project incentives and increasing incentives for large, key projects that have the potential to attract other investments. Incentives are also increasingly increased for overseas investment projects and parent companies located in Thailand.

According to the 12th annual Doing Business Report on October 29, 2015 by the World Bank Group, the International Finance Corporation - IFC, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency - MIGA... announced that the 2015 business environment ranking index of Thailand ranked 26/189, compared to 78/189 of Vietnam. Thanks to reasonable policies, Thailand has increasingly become a destination for foreign direct investment (in 2011, Japan's investment in Thailand was 2.3 times higher in number of projects and 2.8 times higher in capital compared to investment in Vietnam); helping this country build the strength of national agriculture and industry, as well as high-tech strengths in the Southeast Asian region; holds the role of a key country in ASEAN in the automobile industry, petrochemical refining, cement, chemicals, high-tech agriculture, etc. That is also the reason why this country has achieved most of its set goals and is on the right development path, preparing well for AEC integration in 2015.

The Foreign Investment Agency also said that Thailand's projects mainly focus on the processing and manufacturing industry with 200 projects and nearly 7 billion USD in investment capital (accounting for 47% of the total number of projects and 88% of Thailand's total investment capital in Vietnam).

The second largest sector is agriculture, forestry and fisheries with 31 projects and 235.4 million USD in investment capital (accounting for 7% of the total number of projects and 3% of Thailand's total investment capital in Vietnam). The rest focuses on sectors such as wholesale and retail, construction, etc.

Thailand is an important "partner" in attracting investment to Nghe An.

In 2013, the Royal Foods Group of Thailand invested in a seafood processing and cold storage project in Nghe An. This is the pioneering project of Thai investors in Nghe An after successfully investing in the production of canned seafood in Tien Giang province with the brand name "Three girls". The Royal Foods canned seafood factory with an investment capital of more than 27 million USD, equivalent to nearly 600 billion VND, is now in operation. At the same time, the investor has also built Frescol Cold Storage in Nam Cam Industrial Park. This is the second factory producing "Three girls" products in Vietnam.

Royal Foods' canned fish factory in Nghe An is invested in a prime location in Nam Cam industrial park, close to National Highway 1A, near Cua Lo port, can produce 60,000 to 100,000 boxes of canned fish per month. Frescol cold storage with a capacity of 13,000 tons is the first largest cold storage in the Central region, freezing 100 - 150 tons/day.

Mr. Ba Thuong, a leader of the group, said: The factory buys fish from Vietnam from Quang Tri to the north, but only in the fall does it get a lot of fish. Freezing is very important to ensure stable and regular operations. Recently, due to the late inauguration, fish were very limited. Currently, Frescol not only buys fresh fish to store for the company's two factories in Nghe An and Tien Giang, but also provides storage services for businesses in need.

Processing canned fish at Royalfood factory (Southeast Economic Zone). Photo by Lam Tung

Recently, the delegation of Nghe An province led by Mr. Le Ngoc Hoa - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee visited and promoted investment in Bangkok, Thailand. The delegation of Nghe An province worked with the Thai Investment Bureau, the Thai Industrial Federation, the Investment Promotion Board of FTI, Hemaraj Land and Development Company - a leading enterprise of Thailand established in 1988 with main fields such as: Construction of industrial park infrastructure...

Royal Food factory in the Southeast Nghe An Economic Zone. Photo: Chau Lan

Comrade Le Ngoc Hoa, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, said: "Investors from Thailand are very friendly, hospitable and invest quickly and effectively. Recently, after the delegation of Nghe An province went to promote investment in Thailand, introducing Nghe An's investment potential and advantages to Thai investors, the policy mechanisms and industries and fields that Nghe An province calls for and attracts investment, the Thai delegation went to Nghe An to attend the conference to meet investors in early spring, and at the same time surveyed the site, investment locations, and worked specifically with the Southeast Economic Zone. Investors carefully learned about electricity, water, roads, clean land for projects and prepared for investment in industrial park infrastructure... Hemaraj Land and Development Company - Thailand's leading enterprise in industrial park infrastructure construction, electricity production, environmental pollution treatment, real estate services and logistics came to Nghe An and surveyed 4 times in the Southeast Economic Zone and have plans to invest in projects in Nghe An.”

PV Group