Attracting investment to Nghe An, the 'northernmost point'.
(Baonghean) - In recent years, the northern growth districts and towns of Nghe An province, namely Hoang Mai town and Quynh Luu district, have made efforts to create new changes in attracting investment.
Proactively exploit potential and advantages.
Hoang Mai town has been designated as an industrial, tourism, and commercial urban area, so the province has implemented special mechanisms for this locality. Along with a mechanism to allocate all revenue from land exploitation to the town for infrastructure development, the province is also collaborating with the town in investing in several infrastructure projects to attract investment.
Based on that, many infrastructure projects have been invested in, creating momentum, such as: Road 36 connecting Hoang Mai town to Nghia Dan; the road connecting the town to Dong Hoi seaport and the road connecting to Nghi Son port have been upgraded; subsequently, the province also invested in and renovated nearly 5 km from Road 36 to Tan Thang Cement Plant, while also creating a basis to attract other projects to the area.
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| A view of the new urban area of Hoang Mai town. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
Thanks to its well-developed infrastructure, over the past five years, Hoang Mai town has been one of the localities in the province that has attracted many large investment projects, with 48 registered projects totaling 19 trillion VND. Notable projects include the Hoa Sen Steel Sheet Factory, the garment factory at Vinatex in Quynh Vinh commune, and Hai Chau II confectionery factory.
Based on the province's mechanisms and policies, the town has made efforts to attract investment projects to the area to realize socio-economic development goals, making Hoang Mai one of the localities with the highest industrial growth in the province. In addition, with the advantage of being located next to the Nghi Son Economic Zone and being the center of the Southern Thanh Hoa - Northern Nghe An Economic Region, the town has also proactively developed regional linkage plans, welcoming supporting industrial projects for the Nghi Son Economic Zone.
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| The road connecting National Highway 48D to Dong Hoi Deepwater Port is a crucial factor in attracting large-scale logistics and industrial projects. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
In recent years, along with coordinated efforts to facilitate the Tan Thang cement project's planned implementation, the district has attracted several large projects to the area, such as the gac fruit essential oil processing project in Quynh Thang commune, a high-tech agricultural production project by a private enterprise in Quynh Giang commune, and a high-tech commercial pig breeding project in Tan Son commune...
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| The Tan Thang Cement Plant project, invested in Quynh Luu district, aims to exploit the limestone potential of the area. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
Efforts to remove bottlenecks
The fact that the northern districts and towns of the province have attracted large projects that align with the province's socio-economic development orientation in a short period of time is a positive sign. However, compared to the potential and progress of investment attraction in other localities, the scale of these projects is quite modest compared to expectations.
In fact, research shows that most of the projects attracted and implemented are those included in the province's investment promotion and attraction list. Currently, to serve development goals, although each locality has a list of projects (small and medium-sized) to attract investment, the results are very modest. Specifically, in the period 2018-2020, Quynh Luu had 10 projects needing investment attraction in various fields, but after two years, none have started. In Hoang Mai, in the period 2019-2025, in addition to 8 projects currently seeking investment approval from the province, there are 26 more projects seeking investment, but the implementation progress is quite slow.
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| Infrastructure such as roads and low-voltage power lines leading to Tan Thang Cement Plant; Road 36 to Can Bong area, Quynh Thang commune; and the southern bank of Lach Quen fishing port need to attract resources for construction and development. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
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| The Cờn Temple cultural and spiritual tourism area in Quỳnh Phương ward is one of the projects calling for investment to expand the space for festival activities in Hoàng Mai district. Photo: Nguyễn Hải |
In addition to the reasons above, according to an investment specialist, because the land available for investment is mainly in infrastructure and agriculture/forestry, and the areas are far from the district or town centers, it is very difficult to attract investment.
Meanwhile, Hoang Mai town, lacking a well-developed functional zoning plan, faces significant challenges in attracting investors when they conduct surveys. Furthermore, despite their difficulties, the lowland districts and towns do not have the same preferential mechanisms as the particularly disadvantaged mountainous districts, thus failing to encourage investment.
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| A 30-hectare salt field in Duc Long village, Quynh Thuan commune, south of Lach Quen port, has just been announced as a planned Fisheries Logistics Zone to attract businesses to invest in infrastructure. Photo: Nguyen Hai |
Representatives from the People's Committee of Hoang Mai town stated that: To attract investment to the northern districts and towns in general, and Hoang Mai in particular, the province needs to focus on investing in and completing infrastructure outside industrial parks and clusters in these localities; at the same time, it needs to create more favorable conditions for localities to connect with and showcase their potential to attract investment to their areas.