Nghe An is removing two important bottlenecks to increase attraction of large projects.

Delegate Nguyen Xuan Duc - Director of the Department of Planning and Investment spoke during the discussion session in the hall. Photo: Thanh Cuong

During the discussion session at the hall on the morning of December 8 of the 4th session of the 18th Provincial People's Council, delegate Nguyen Xuan Duc - Director of the Department of Planning and Investment explained and clarified a number of opinions of the Provincial People's Council delegates raised earlier in the discussion session in groups.

One of the issues that has attracted the attention of many voters, provincial People's Council delegates as well as provincial leaders and departments, branches and sectors in recent times is the continued improvement of the investment and business environment. For example, the summary of discussion opinions in group 1 clearly stated that it is necessary to review and amend regulations on procedures for implementing investment projects, related policies and mechanisms in accordance with current legal regulations in the direction of creating maximum conditions for businesses and investors; attracting many large projects, projects that create momentum for the province's economic development, and projects that employ a lot of labor.

Responding to this content, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Duc said that the business investment environment is shown through three main indexes, including: Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI); Provincial Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) and Public Administration Reform Index (PAR Index).

“These indicators of Nghe An province have all improved and increased over the years,” affirmed the leader of the Department of Planning and Investment. Specifically, in 2020, Nghe An's PCI ranked 18th nationwide, 2nd in the North Central region; PAPI in 2020 ranked 15th nationwide, up 2 places compared to 2019; PAR Index in 2020 ranked 18th nationwide, up 6 places compared to 2019.

WHA Industrial Park in the Southeast Economic Zone. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Also in 2020, despite being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Nghe An's investment attraction work has achieved remarkable results. Specifically, 106 new projects were licensed, 118 projects were adjusted with a total capital of more than 28,000 billion VND. The total number of projects increased by 41%, the capital increased nearly 2.92 times compared to the same period last year. In particular, there are large FDI projects in the Apple ecosystem that have invested in Nghe An with a capital of hundreds of millions of USD...

Implementing the Resolution of the 19th Provincial Party Congress, paying attention to improving the investment and business environment, the provincial leaders assigned the Department of Planning and Investment to develop a Project to improve the investment and business environment and enhance the efficiency of investment attraction, expected to be submitted to the Provincial Party Standing Committee this December, identifying the strengths and weaknesses in the above fields.

“Especially for large projects, the provincial leaders have identified two major bottlenecks that need to be resolved in upgrading the international airport, cargo terminal as well as seaports and deep-water ports for transporting goods. At the same time, the province is expected to allocate more than 600 billion VND to complete and synchronize the infrastructure of the Southeast Economic Zone, increasing the attraction of large projects here,” said a representative of this Department.

The area of ​​high-tech agricultural production in the Western Nghe An region accounts for more than 50% of the province's high-tech agricultural area. Photo: Phu Huong

Also explaining and clarifying the discussion opinions in group 4, suggesting attention to attracting businesses to invest in mountainous areas, especially processing enterprises to solve jobs for local workers, support people in production, avoid the situation where people have good harvests but prices fall, delegate Nguyen Xuan Duc said that currently, there are 11 mountainous districts enjoying special incentives from the Government, being designated investors, tax exemption, land rent exemption...

Recently, the province has issued many resolutions focusing on this area, revolving around contents such as attracting projects, encouraging investment in rural agriculture... In fact, there have been many projects implemented in Western Nghe An such as MDF wood processing, TH Group milk and fruit processing, Masan's processing project...

In the planning, Nghe An province sees processing, manufacturing, and value chain enhancement as areas that need attention to promote the potential and advantages of mountainous districts, assigning departments and branches to plan raw material areas, coordinate in building projects to attract investment in the coming time, and move towards solving employment for mountainous areas.