Attracting investment to the 'Northernmost' Nghe An

Actively exploit potentials and advantages

Hoang Mai town is identified as an industrial, tourist and commercial urban area, so the province has specific mechanisms for this locality. Along with the mechanism to keep all revenue from land exploitation for the town to invest in infrastructure development, the province also accompanies the town in investing in a number of infrastructure projects to call for investment.

On that basis, many infrastructure items were invested in, creating momentum, such as: Road 36 connecting Hoang Mai Town to Nghia Dan; the road connecting from the Town to Dong Hoi seaport and the road connecting to Nghi Son port were invested in and upgraded; next, the province also invested in and renewed nearly 5 km from Road 36 to Tan Thang Cement Factory, at the same time creating a basis to call for a number of other projects in the area.

A corner of the new urban area of ​​Hoang Mai town. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Thanks to the basic infrastructure investment, in the past 5 years, Hoang Mai Town has been one of the localities in the province that has attracted many large investment projects with 48 registered projects with a total capital of 19 trillion VND. Notable projects are Hoa Sen Steel Factory, Vinatex Garment Factory in Quynh Vinh Commune, Hai Chau Confectionery II.

Based on the mechanisms and policies of the province, the town has made efforts to attract investment projects to the area to realize the goal of socio-economic development, making Hoang Mai one of the localities with the highest industrial value in the province. In addition, with the advantage of being located next to Nghi Son Economic Zone and being the center of the Nam Thanh Bac Nghe Economic Zone, the town has also proactively built a regional linkage plan, welcoming supporting industrial projects for Nghi Son Economic Zone.

Mr. Pham Chi Dien - Head of the Town Investment Project Management Board

The road connecting National Highway 48D to Dong Hoi Deep-water Port is an important criterion to attract large logistics and industrial projects. Photo: Nguyen Hai

In recent years, along with coordinated efforts to create favorable conditions for the Tan Thang cement project to be implemented as planned, the district has attracted a number of large projects to the area, such as the Gac oil food processing project in Quynh Thang commune, a high-tech agricultural production project of a private enterprise in Quynh Giang commune, a high-tech commercial pig breeding project in Tan Son commune...

Tan Thang Cement Factory project invested in Quynh Luu area aims to exploit the limestone potential in this area. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Efforts to "remove" bottlenecks

The fact that in a short period of time, the northern districts and towns of the province have attracted large projects that are in line with the province's socio-economic development orientation is a positive sign. However, compared to the potential and attraction progress of other localities, the scale of the above projects is quite modest compared to expectations.

In fact, through research, most of the projects that have been attracted and implemented are projects in the province's investment promotion and calling list. Currently, to serve the development goal, although each locality has a list of projects (small and medium scale) to call for investment, the results are very modest. Specifically, in the period of 2018 - 2020, Quynh Luu has 10 projects that need to be attracted in various fields, but after 2 years, no project has started. In Hoang Mai, in the period of 2019 - 2025, in addition to 8 projects applying for investment policies from the province, it is expected that there will be 26 projects calling for investment, but the implementation progress is quite slow.

Road infrastructure and low-voltage power to Tan Thang Cement Factory; 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

The Con Temple Cultural and Spiritual Tourism Area in Quynh Phuong Ward is one of the projects calling for investment to expand the space for festival activities in Hoang Mai. Photo: Nguyen Hai

In addition to the above reasons, according to an investment specialist, because the land fund attracts investment mainly in the fields of infrastructure and agriculture and forestry, the area is far from the district and town center, so it is very difficult to attract investment.

Meanwhile, Hoang Mai town has not yet developed a plan for functional subdivisions, so when investors come to survey, it is very difficult to introduce and invite them. Not only that, the districts and towns in the plains, although facing difficulties, do not have their own incentive mechanisms like the especially difficult mountainous districts, so they do not encourage investors.

The 30-hectare salt field of Duc Long village, Quynh Thuan commune, south of Lach Quen port, has just been announced to be planned as a fishing logistics area to call for businesses to invest in infrastructure. Photo: Nguyen Hai

The representative of Hoang Mai Town People's Committee said: To attract investment in the northern districts and towns in general and Hoang Mai in particular, on the one hand, the province needs to pay attention to investing in completing infrastructure outside industrial parks and industrial clusters in localities; at the same time, it is necessary to create more favorable conditions for localities to contact and introduce their potential to attract investment in the area./.