Danang reports increased investment inflows

Municipal officials grant investment registration certificates to investors in early March.

During the first days of March, Danang issued investment permissions and decisions to a total of eight projects, valued at US$469 million in capital.

The central city also gave approval to scrutinizing the feasibility of 13 other investment projects with a combined capital of US$3.6 billion, surging by 13 times compared with the same period last year.

According to the Danang Investment Promotion Agency, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow has rebounded since the beginning of the year with the high-tech sector enjoying a surge in investment.

Notably, Universal Alloy Corporation (UAC), a global manufacturer of aircraft components, launched a US$170 million project dedicated to manufacturing aerospace components in the Danang Hi-Tech Park, which is expected to provide a large boost to FDI inflows into the park.

Once put into operation, the UAC factory is projected to provide 4,000 aircraft components for export.

Kevin Loebbaka, currently President of UAC-Europe and Chief Operating Officer of UAC-Global, said that when Boeing and Airbus wish to promote their manufacturing operations, the UAC could act as a bridge by which to connect their future production in Danang.

Untangle bottleneck in planning

This year continues to see Danang realize its target of attracting additional investment inflows. The city plans to step up its approach to strategic investment in the hope of offering lucrative spaces to projects across the fields of high-tech agriculture, education, healthcare, and information and technology.

According to Nguyen Tien Quang, head of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s branch in Danang, a number of investors have encountered numerous difficulties in seeking sites to carry out their projects. Quang cited limited and fragmented land as a main cause, which makes land provision for large-scale projects unfeasible.

Municipal officials have given much thought to enabling enterprises and investors to access available land plots through stabilizing ground leases, thus helping them cut down their input costs, Tien added.

Huynh Duc Tho, chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, admitted that vague planning has created a considerable bottleneck in attracting investments, particularly from foreign firms.

Tho unveiled that the city has hired foreign consulting entities to map out the revised city master plan by 2030 and a socio-economic development strategy with a vision towards 2045.

The existing planning, which is vague and lacks transparency, has been hindering the implementation of a number of projects, the municipal chairman said.

He stressed that local authorities have been hastening the planning progress, including master planning while maximizing efforts to ease difficulties in executing the projects.