Nghe An: Strongly improving the investment environment, accompanying businesses

(Baonghean) - At the dialogue with FDI investors on the afternoon of February 18, Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Le Ngoc Hoa said that, implementing the policy of concentrating all resources on investment and development, prioritizing internal resources and attaching importance to attracting external resources, improving the investment and business environment, creating all favorable conditions for enterprises to invest in production and business, promoting socio-economic development, Nghe An province continues to call for and attract domestic and foreign investment projects.

In an open and frank dialogue atmosphere, representatives of foreign investment enterprises from Australia, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Thailand, etc. exchanged many ideas with the People's Committee of Nghe An province to strengthen cooperation for development.

Speaking at the dialogue, Mr. Craig Chittick - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Australia to Vietnam expressed his joy when a large project of an Australian enterprise officially came into operation in Nghe An with plans to promote development in the coming time.

With a large area like Nghe An, developing commercial livestock farming is a positive driving force for the livestock and poultry feed production industry and other supporting industries such as breeds, veterinary medicine, etc., thereby increasing the value of the livestock industry associated with food processing towards export. Mr. Craig Chittick also said that Nghe An needs to actively promote high-quality human resources, which is both a factor that helps investors have the force to develop projects and solves employment for workers when there are more projects and factories in the area.

Canning products at Royal Foods Factory, Nam Cam Industrial Park. Photo: Lam Tung

Responding to Mr. Craig Chittick's opinion, Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee Le Ngoc Hoa sincerely thanked the Australian Embassy for its support. In particular, the Austfeed Animal Feed Factory of the Australian investor, which has expanded its livestock breeding production and livestock genetic center, is very suitable for the strategy of developing high-tech agriculture and livestock in Nghe An. That will open up many opportunities for mutual development.

Foreign investors such as Hemaraj, Mavin Australia, TKV Korea, VSIP Nghe An, Goldstar, etc. also expressed interest in the province's preferential policies for FDI enterprises when investing in high-tech fields.

In addition to the general policies of the Vietnamese Government, FDI investors expect all levels and sectors in Nghe An to increase information on socio-economic development planning, specific priorities for investors and request the province to continue investing in upgrading infrastructure of airports, seaports, roads, high-speed railways, power grid infrastructure, services in industrial parks, etc. to actively support projects to maximize efficiency.

Agreeing with the above views, Mr. Mv. Tatsuki - member of the Board of Directors of YABASHI Company (Japan) suggested that Nghe An province focus on foreign language training for the workforce. If the workers are proficient in foreign languages, especially the languages ​​of countries with investment enterprises such as Japan, Korea, Thailand, etc., then the users, managers and the workforce will certainly shorten the time for interpretation, enhance understanding, and promote efficiency in production development.

In the discussion with investors, Mr. Le Ngoc Hoa and representatives of departments and branches of Nghe An province affirmed: Nghe An is actively connecting and opening more direct air routes to countries with many investors in the province; at the same time, the North-South and intra-provincial road systems have been upgraded, facilitating traffic; regarding seaports, the development of deep-water ports for ships with a capacity of over 70,000 tons has been initiated; in the coming years, ships with a capacity of 50,000 tons can load and unload goods at some seaports of Nghe An.

Hemaraj project perspective. Photo courtesy

Regarding electricity and water for industrial parks, the province prioritizes capital sources to best serve investors. In particular, in the province, there are also industrial park infrastructure investors such as VSIP, Hemaraj... which will create all favorable conditions for foreign and domestic enterprises to invest and develop together. Regarding human resources, Nghe An province ranks first in the country in terms of student learning outcomes and the province also focuses on developing a system of vocational schools, colleges and multidisciplinary universities, gradually improving the quality of training to meet the requirements of businesses. "In the development process, officials at all levels of Nghe An province have determined the motto "The government accompanies businesses, the success of businesses is also the success of the province". Therefore, the province continues to promote the reform of administrative procedures to be streamlined and most effective, public officials, in addition to serving the people, always determine a high sense of responsibility towards investors" - Mr. Le Ngoc Hoa emphasized.

The determination of Nghe An province was further clarified when Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen - former Minister of Trade of Vietnam shared his views on Nghe An's strengths. In particular, he emphasized and analyzed 2 issues that Nghe An needs to promote in the coming time, which are: "First, we must further improve the business environment. There is no reason why Nghe An is not in the top of the country in terms of provincial competitiveness index. I suggest that Nghe An will make efforts to move up to the top of the region, then the top 10 of the country. Second, we need to pay attention to agricultural projects, promote agricultural restructuring towards large-scale production, apply high technology, value chains, catch up with the strong development trend, create many clean products from fields, farms to dining tables as committed by some FDI investors...".

At the dialogue, representatives of the functional agencies of Nghe An province also directly clarified the issues that investors are concerned about, providing details of the incentives that Nghe An has been and is providing to investment partners. The province also appreciates and accepts the constructive comments and assessments of FDI enterprises, considering them as the basis for the province to make further efforts to improve the investment attraction environment, practically accompanying enterprises in the coming time.

When the dialogue ended, most of the basic concerns were answered, so FDI investors expressed satisfaction with the Nghe An provincial government in its efforts to support and accompany foreign enterprises for mutual development.

At the end of the dialogue, Mr. David R. Nardone - Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hemaraj Group (Thailand) shared: "In the process of researching investment opportunities in Vietnam, we have carefully studied the climate, people and other conditions comparing between localities. And we chose Nghe An because this place has many advantages and incentives, suitable for the development strategy of the group. During the investment promotion process, we received great help from Nghe An province. In the near future, we will bring many companies operating in Thailand to invest in Nghe An"

Nguyen Son - Thu Giang