Nghe An promotes investment attraction, integration and development

(Baonghean) - Implementing Resolution No. 26 dated July 30, 2013 of the Politburo and Resolution of the 18th Nghe An Provincial Party Congress, striving to make Nghe An an economic center of the North Central region and a fairly developed province in the Northern region by 2020, Nghe An has been directing strongly, paying great attention to improving the most favorable investment environment, promoting the available potential in the locality, enhancing competitiveness to attract the maximum number of domestic and foreign investors. Since then, many breakthroughs have been created in the overall picture of the province's socio-economic situation in the 2010-2015 term, especially in 2015.

In 2015, our province has issued new Investment Certificates for 111 projects of domestic and foreign enterprises with a total registered capital of over 87 trillion VND. In addition, it continues to implement 31 ODA programs and projects with a total investment of over 15 trillion VND, and is promoting 11 new programs and projects in the fields of agriculture, health, infrastructure, education, etc.

Nghe An also received nearly 25 billion VND in investment for 20 project programs and non-project programs sponsored by foreign non-governmental organizations, Vietnamese organizations and individuals abroad in 2015.

Ribbon cutting ceremony for Royal Foods Factory and Frescol Cold Storage.

Looking back at the investment attraction results of Nghe An province in the past time, in the 2 years 2014 - 2015 alone, the number of attracted projects increased nearly 1.5 times, the registered capital increased more than 2.2 times compared to the 3 years 2011 - 2013 combined. In particular, 2015 was the year our province attracted many large projects that played a leading role in growth, breakthrough development and had a strategy in socio-economic development such as: VSIP Nghe An Urban - Service Industrial Park Complex, Quynh Lap Thermal Power Plant 2,400 MW, 2 Hoa Sen Steel Plants, Royal Foods Seafood Processing Plant, 500-bed International Hospital, cement factories with a capacity of 8 million tons/year, Phase 2 General Hospital, ...

Nghe An is increasingly proving its attractiveness in the investment market when it becomes the choice of many large, branded investors such as Becamex Group, Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group, Massan, Vingroup, Vinamilk, TH, Ton Hoa Sen, The Vissai Group, Royal Foods, BSE, ...; the new feature in attracting investment last year was not only industrial factories but also investment in high-tech agriculture such as production and processing of milk, oranges, passion fruit, tea, cassava flour, rubber, medicinal herbs and investment in the fields of education, health, and culture increased rapidly, for example: 43 hospitals in the province, of which 10 are private hospitals (ranked 3rd in the country in terms of socialized healthcare), including a 250-bed general hospital and a 500-bed international hospital. In the province, there are 6 universities, of which 2 are private schools invested by the private sector.

Social security projects and national historical relics, spiritual works are invested by socialized resources (support from businesses and philanthropists) with thousands of billions of VND such as Truong Bon relic site; Dai Tue pagoda; Gam pagoda; Can Linh pagoda; Soviet Nghe Tinh 12/9 relic site; schools, cultural houses...

It can be said that investment attraction in the past year has grown rapidly, with large developments in project scale, quality, modern technology and efficiency. Accelerating investment attraction has transformed, changed, and developed the province's socio-economic situation, solved the problem of labor and employment, increased budget revenue, and created new, highly competitive products.

Achieving such breakthrough results is thanks to the solidarity and utmost efforts of the Party Committee and people of the province and the creation of support mechanisms and policies so that investors and projects can be implemented in favorable conditions.

In particular, investment promotion work was focused on and raised to a new level with a series of major events on investment promotion in 2015 such as: Conference to meet investors in the spring of At Mui, Program "Meeting with localities - Diplomatic Corps" for the North Central provinces, Program "Meeting Nghe An people abroad to visit their homeland to celebrate the Spring of At Mui 2015", Meeting and promoting investment with Japanese and Korean enterprises in Hanoi, Spring Economic Forum...

At the same time, during the year, the province also organized receptions and worked with 40 delegations of organizations and investors from many countries, strengthening friendly and cooperative relations with friendly countries such as Laos, Japan, Thailand, Korea, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, etc. Especially in attracting investment last year, there was dynamism in searching, inviting, attracting and creating conditions with investors to implement projects, not passively waiting.

In the coming time, attracting investment continues to be identified as an important solution for the province in socio-economic development. Especially, in the context of deep global integration, Vietnam is a member of many world and regional organizations and institutions such as ASEAN, TPP, which means the door to attracting investment is more open than ever for Vietnam in general and Nghe An in particular.

To grasp and make the most of the golden opportunity for attracting investment, Nghe An has identified improving the investment environment, especially in terms of administrative reform, creating the most favorable mechanisms and policies, creating convenient infrastructure and services for investors, and promptly resolving difficulties for investors as urgent tasks, as solutions to the problem of improving the provincial competitiveness index PCI.

The specific goal in 2016 is to attract at least 120 projects with registered capital of 50 - 80 trillion VND. Of which, the focus is on attracting FDI with a total capital of 8 - 10 trillion VND.

Groundbreaking ceremony of the Investment Project to build Wharf No. 5 and No. 6 of Cua Lo Port.

To achieve the above goals, we need to have high political determination, each cadre and party member is a soldier serving the economic front of the province; turning the development goal of the province into the aspiration of each citizen, creating solidarity, consensus and the highest determination to attract and support investors.

The province will focus on developing convenient infrastructure such as airports, ports, roads, industrial parks, electricity, water, land prices... Along with that, creating convenient services, providing human resources, raw materials, administrative reform, and the best security and order for investors; the province's policies will be consistent and most accessible.

Investment projects in mineral processing industries, white earth, tin, Nghe An products with strengths such as textiles, seafood processing, forestry products, agricultural products, consumer goods, food processing, construction materials production, etc. will also be classified into the group of priority projects.

Besides, Nghe An also encourages investors operating in the trade and tourism service industry to effectively exploit and promote tourism resources (landscapes and relics) and abundant local cultural deposits.

A fairly new but promising investment field is high-tech agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry, forestry processing, tea and sugarcane raw material areas... that are environmentally friendly, which also receive much attention from the province, because this is a common trend in the world and is also a solution to increase the value of the agricultural sector in which Nghe An has strengths.

Leaders of the Foreign Investment Agency and leaders of Nghe An province exchanged and received cooperation memorandums with Gifu province - Japan.

For investment partners, Nghe An will continue to strongly promote to many countries, especially with traditional investors such as Japan, Singapore, Korea, Israel, Russia, etc. At the same time, it will promote investment towards potential partners such as Taiwan, Iran, Czech Republic, USA, Australia, etc.

In the groups of solutions to promote investment attraction activities of the province, besides solutions such as administrative reform; reviewing and perfecting planning, mechanisms and policies; building a database to serve investment promotion activities; improving capacity and responsibility of officials;... it is worth noting that there is a solution to promote communication and dialogue cooperation with provinces and countries.

Through information channels, dialogues, and contacts with investors, new investment opportunities will be brought as well as a favorable, fast, and smooth working environment and conditions will be created for investors present in the province.

The annual meeting of investors in the early spring of Binh Than year 2016 held on February 21st is the 8th conference, a traditional activity, the annual investment festival of the province with proven effectiveness through 7 previous conferences; not only is it an opportunity to express the province's goodwill and gratitude to investors who have contributed to the socio-economic development of the province, the conference is also an open forum between provincial leaders and businesses to jointly resolve difficulties, promote progress and improve investment efficiency in Nghe An.

The success of previous conferences and the results achieved in attracting investment last year are the reasons for us to believe in the success of the Annual Meeting with Investors in the Spring of Binh Than. This will be a good start for the investment attraction of Nghe An province in 2016, bringing prospects and hopes for breakthrough developments in the province's socio-economic development in the coming time./.

Ho Duc Phuc

Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Council of Nghe An province