Party building

Building a solid foundation for a new stage of development -Part 4: Proactively catching investment waves, reaching out to attract FDI

Duc Chuyen - Thanh Duy • October 4, 2024 17:17

Thanks to breakthrough reforms in the business environment and administrative procedures, along with a proactive strategy to approach investors, Nghe An has attracted a series of technology "eagles" such as Foxconn, Luxshare, Goertek and many other big names. With the spirit of "5 readiness", the province has built a solid foundation for sustainable development, creating a spillover effect in the international business community.

Duc Chuyen - Thanh Duy • October 5, 2024

Thanks to breakthrough reforms in the business environment and administrative procedures, along with a proactive strategy to approach investors, Nghe An has attracted a series of technology "eagles" such as Foxconn, Luxshare, Goertek and many other big names. With the spirit of "5 readiness", the province has built a solid foundation for sustainable development, creating a spillover effect in the international business community.

In the 2020-2025 term, Nghe An is undergoing a dramatic change in attracting foreign direct investment. From a locality facing many difficulties in attracting FDI, Nghe An has suddenly become a new stronghold of the world's major technology companies. Remember, on October 5, 2022, on the homepage of Apple (the world's leading technology and phone group; the first company in the world with a brand value exceeding 1,000 billion USD), posted quite interesting information related to Nghe An: "Starting from 2021, Nghe An, along with many other cities in the US, Germany, Japan, Korea, India, China... are the locations of factories of partners manufacturing products for American technology companies". Specifically, in Nghe An is the factory of Luxshare Precision Industry Company Limited in VSIP Industrial Park.

Nikkei Asia - a prestigious English-language weekly magazine belonging to Japan's leading media group Nikkei, specializing in reporting on the economic, financial, business and investment situation in the Asian market, said: "In 2021, Luxshare's factory in Nghe An was for the first time on Apple's very strict capital list."

It can be said that the keyword “Nghe An” appearing on Apple’s homepage and in the Nikkei Asia article has great significance for promoting the province’s investment environment to domestic and foreign investors; or in other words, this is a guarantee of Nghe An’s prestige when joining the fierce competition to attract FDI.

Not only the factory of Luxshare Precision Industry Company Limited, but in the past 4 years, technology giants who are partners of Apple, Samsung... have chosen Nghe An to "nest" such as: Foxconn, Everwin Precision, JuTeng, Sunny - names that when looking at, any locality would be willing to roll out the red carpet to invite. Indeed, if you look at the "résumés" of the above names, you will feel the great significance when these high-tech corporations invest in Nghe An, it does not only stop at the specific results through the investment efficiency of the project, but also creates a spillover effect that attracts other investors to the province.

So what makes the "big guys" above "choose Nghe An to entrust their investment", even though the province is geographically far from the two major economic centers of the country, the Northeast and the Southeast?

It can be said that the above results are the product of a long-term preparation process of Nghe An from previous terms, and were highly promoted in the 2020-2025 term, with many methodical and drastic approaches and steps.

The formula for success lies in the 5 "ready" messages that the province widely announced to the domestic and foreign business community with a concise content in 20 words: Simple procedures, ready land fund, abundant human resources, complete infrastructure, and responsible companionship.

The first,is ready for planning.

Monday,is ready for investment.

Tuesday,is to be ready for essential infrastructure: Nghe An province focuses on mobilizing investment resources to complete important and essential infrastructure such as: Cua Lo Deepwater Port Investment Project; Vinh International Airport Upgrade and Expansion Project; Coordinate with the Ministry of Transport to soon complete the North-South Expressway Project through Nghe An province; complete the infrastructure system and social services, housing for workers, housing for foreign experts; high-quality educational, vocational training and medical facilities; international standard commercial, service, hotel and resort facilities;

Wednesday,is ready in terms of human resources. With the advantage of more than 1.6 million people of working age, annually adding about 45,000 people to the labor market, of which 30,000 are trained workers; a multi-sector, multi-field vocational training system with 17 universities, colleges and 70 vocational training establishments. Nghe An is ready to provide enough human resources in both quantity and quality for foreign-invested enterprises in the area.

Thursday,is to be ready to innovate, reform, and substantially improve the investment and business environment; simplify administrative procedures in the direction of "One-stop shop", "One-stop shop", especially investment procedures in economic zones and industrial parks are resolved quickly and conveniently. Build a creative and serving government; Take the measure of trust and satisfaction of businesses as the core goal to promote economic development.

Along with the "5 ready", Nghe An also drastically changed the method of attracting investment compared to the traditional way. Previously, at the beginning of Spring, Nghe An often organized the Meeting with Investors. This is an annual activity to meet, express gratitude, exchange and share information between the Party Committee and the government of Nghe An province with investors and businesses that are interested in and contribute to the socio-economic development of the province; at the same time, to propagate, introduce and promote the potential, advantages, mechanisms, investment incentives, promote trade and tourism to investors. However, after the 12th Conference in the Spring of Canh Ty 2020, when realizing that this form was no longer suitable in the context, situation and new requirements, Nghe An boldly stopped. Instead, the province proactively carried out promotional activities, promoted and attracted investment with the motto of focusing on key points in a two-way form.

On the other hand, instead of waiting for investors to come, the province proactively connects and seeks investors through bridges of businesses, entrepreneurs; ministries, branches; foreign diplomatic and trade agencies in Vietnam such as: Embassies of countries such as Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, India; international organizations and agencies, Foreign Business Associations such as: JETRO (Japan); KOICA, KCCI, KoCham (Korea); AmCham (USA); EuroCham (Europe); US-ASEAN Business Council... and Vietnamese diplomatic agencies abroad to promote investment.

Provincial leaders also "knocked on the doors" of domestic and foreign corporations and enterprises, organized investment promotion "roadshows" in many countries such as India, Singapore, China, Japan, Korea...

In the afternoon, the provincial leaders always welcome and support whenever there are interested investors; in particular, the province always attaches importance to on-site investment promotion by supporting investors in the process of surveying, implementing procedures for granting Investment Certificates, site clearance; at the same time, organizing meetings and dialogues to remove obstacles and difficulties for investors. Once investors choose Nghe An and have peace of mind and trust, they continue to become bridges, introducing the province to other businesses, such as the case of investor JuTeng (Taiwan) who, after investing in Hoang Mai I Industrial Park, became a "family member" to support the province in attracting other businesses.

These changes in the direction of focus and key points have brought about clear results in attracting investment, especially foreign direct investment (FDI). The quantity and quality of investment projects are high.

In 2022, for the first time, Nghe An province entered the top 10 localities attracting the largest FDI in the country, with a total newly granted and adjusted capital of 961.3 million USD; in 2023, it entered the top 8 localities attracting the largest FDI in the country, with a total capital of more than 1.6 billion USD and was the only province out of 14 provinces in the North Central and Central Coast regions to do so. In the first 9 months of 2024, the province also attracted over 730 million USD in FDI capital.

Although investment capital is needed, Nghe An does not act in a "scavenging for the little things" manner, which would have to trade growth for the environment and social security, but always follows the development viewpoint in the Document of the 19th Provincial Party Congress: "Persistently implementing the orientation of sustainable development, while determined to create breakthroughs in a number of key areas and sectors. Economic development is associated with social progress and equity, and environmental protection".

(To be continued)

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>>Part 1: Looking straight at the truth
>>Part 2: The key to 'focus and focus'
>>Part 3: Decided to 'Pull out the nails under the carpet'
>>Final episode: Ready to enter a new era