Southern region to lure foreign investors
Each province must define their competitive advantages and economic potential to assist the government in its foreign-investment decision-making, heard a seminar held in Can Tho on August 14.
The southern region has the greatest economic proportion and largest contribution to the State budget. It is necessary to know the potential development of each province, Do Nhat Hoang, head of the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Foreign Investment Agency said.
He was speaking at a Foreign Investment Conference, attracting representatives of 21 southern provinces' Planning and Investment Departments, Investment Promotion Centres, Economic Zones, and Industrial and Processing Parks.
As the Mekong Delta has high potential in agriculture, seafood and fruit trees, each province should give detailed information about the kinds of seafood or fruit it can raise or grow best, he said.
"From such details, the Foreign Investment Department will introduce and invite the proper foreign investors," he added.
At present, the department is trying to guide foreign investment into suitable industries in order to ensure quality and effectiveness.
At the conference, solutions to support enterprises in dealing with economic difficulties and attracting more foreign investment were discussed.
Another topic concerned guidelines for setting up new investment promotion programme based on recent Government new decision (No 03) related to State management and investment promotion.
Since early this year to mid-July, 889 FDI projects have received investment licences with registered capital of US$6.8 billion. Another 300 projects have expanded their capital with more US$2.6 billion.
New and expanded capital accounted for 80% of investment compared with the same period last year.
The Foreign Investment Agency targets US$20 billion in foreign investment for the year.
According to statistics from the department, there are around 16,800 foreign invested projects — with total registered capital of US$242.2 billion and disbursed capital of US$118 billion – operating in Vietnam.
The manufacturing industry comprises 54% while real estate is 20.6% and agriculture-forestry-marine is 1.4%.
Japan, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Singapore and Taiwan are the top four investors in Vietnam.