Lying far from major economic hubs of the nation, Bac Lieu province faces more difficulties than other localities in attracting investment capital for development, from traffic infrastructure and construction to business projects. With great efforts in the past 20 years, the province has managed to draw many big investment projects which have created a new position for Bac Lieu. Reporter Kim Oanh from Entrepreneurial Culture Magazine (VCCI) has an interview with Mr. Tran Thanh Tam, Director of the Bac Lieu Department of Planning and Investment, on the province’s investment attraction.
Despite global and domestic economic slowdown, Bac Lieu still attracted a lot of investment projects. Could you please elaborate on the province’s successes in investment attraction?
Bac Lieu province has to date licensed 105 investment projects, including 90 domestic projects with VND21,699 billion (nearly US$1 billion) of investment capital and 15 foreign projects with US$72.4 million. Although it does not have as many advantages in investment attraction as other localities, the province has still achieved positive results to this effect because it has actively adopted innovative approaches. Especially, investment promotion is not defined to only professional agencies but it is a common task of the entire political system. Besides, Bac Lieu has effectively attracted new investors via existing ones in the province, particularly foreigners.
In addition, the province pledges to offer the biggest incentives for investors.
With consistent and effective solutions, the investment environment of Bac Lieu province is better, more open and more transparent. Reformed policies and administrative procedures are highly appreciated by domestic and foreign investors who think high of business potential and investment opportunities in the province, a desirable investment destination for them.
Would you be kind enough to tell major projects that have laid the foundation for boosting socioeconomic development and lifting Bac Lieu to a new plane?
Big, effective projects seen as driving forces for local socioeconomic development and elevating Bac Lieu to new heights include:
– Bac Lieu wind power plant (second phase completed) with 62 turbines with a combined capacity of 99.2 MW. The facility generated 388,604.1 MWh of electricity for the national grid as of the end of June 2017. This can be seen as the premise for Bac Lieu to become a leading producer and developer of renewable energy, clean energy.
– Aquatic breeding project, invested by Vietnam – Australia Bac Lieu Joint Stock Company, produces 20 billion baby fishes a year. Covering 300 ha, the project is applying a super-intensive shrimp farming model in the greenhouse. This is a technologically innovative shrimp farming model in the province.
– Vinh Loc food processing plant with a designed annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes has promoted the expansion of large-field farming model and business-farmer cooperation in product consumption. The first stage of the plant, with a yearly output of 100,000 tonnes, has initially generated good results for both farmers and the company.
– Pinetree garment factory with a designed capacity of 30 million products a year, invested by a South Korean company, has gone into operation and employed 2,000 labourers, mainly locals.
– Tra Kha Industrial Park is housing many motivating projects in the province like Saigon brewery (paying taxes worth VND300 billion a year) and Vinatex garment factory of Vietnam Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), which is under construction and planned to employ nearly 4,000 workers. The occupancy rate is over 70 per cent.
The decline in Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) rankings in 2015 and 2016 has placed much more work for the province to do to improve this reality. It is said that Bac Lieu needs to be more aggressive to create breakthroughs in the investment environment. What do you think about this?
I totally agree on this. Bac Lieu province’s continuous decline in PCI rankings, especially in 2016, has required the province to take urgent actions and effective measures to stop this movement and raise its PCI rankings in 2017 and beyond. Therefore, right after the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) released the PCI report in 2016, the Provincial People’s Committee directed the Department of Planning and Investment to analyse and assess causes and limitations resulting to falling scores and rankings.
From the department’s analysis and assessment, the Provincial People’s Committee issued the Decision No. 724/QD-UBND dated April 21, 2017 to set up the Working Group on PCI Improvement where the Chairperson of the Provincial People’s Committee serves as the Director, the Deputy Chairperson of the Provincial People’s Committee is the Deputy Director, and heads of provincial agencies and chairpersons of District/Town People’s Committees are members. The working group advised the Provincial People’s Committee to launch the “Action Programme for PCI Improvement in 2017 and beyond”.
Could you please provide more information about the Action Programme for Bac Lieu PCI Improvement in 2017 and beyond? What is the focus?
The Action Programme sets out specific targets for each year from 2017 to 2020, applied to all 10 component indicators and 111 specific targets. In addition, it assigns agencies and units that lead and monitor the performance of each component indicator and every target indicator. This is the new central content of the Programme. It details works and responsibility of every stakeholder, particularly the responsibility of the leader of stakeholder in improving specific targets to raise component indicators and the overall PCI Index.
The Action Programme outlines eight key measures to improve PCI scores in 2017 and beyond: (1) Guidance solution for implementation, (2) Administrative procedure reform solution, (3) Transparency enhancement solution, (4) Business support solution, (5) Training solution, (6) Communication solution, (7) Solutions on cooperation with VCCI, and (8) Financial resource solution.
Those solutions have brought in effective outcomes as many domestic and foreign investors have arrived in the province to study, access and register investment projects in the fields the province wants like renewable energy (12 investors), hi-tech agriculture (20 investors), travel, trade and service. This has proven that tasks and solutions that the province set out are right and effective.
Thank you very much!
With great efforts in the past 20 years, the province has managed to draw many big investment projects which have created a new position for Bac Lieu. Reporter Kim Oanh from Entrepreneurial Culture Magazine (VCCI) has an interview with Mr. Tran Thanh Tam, Director of the Bac Lieu Department of Planning and Investment, on the province’s investment attraction.
Despite global and domestic economic slowdown, Bac Lieu still attracted a lot of investment projects. Could you please elaborate on the province’s successes in investment attraction?
Bac Lieu province has to date licensed 105 investment projects, including 90 domestic projects with VND21,699 billion (nearly US$1 billion) of investment capital and 15 foreign projects with US$72.4 million. Although it does not have as many advantages in investment attraction as other localities, the province has still achieved positive results to this effect because it has actively adopted innovative approaches. Especially, investment promotion is not defined to only professional agencies but it is a common task of the entire political system. Besides, Bac Lieu has effectively attracted new investors via existing ones in the province, particularly foreigners.
In addition, the province pledges to offer the biggest incentives for investors.
With consistent and effective solutions, the investment environment of Bac Lieu province is better, more open and more transparent. Reformed policies and administrative procedures are highly appreciated by domestic and foreign investors who think high of business potential and investment opportunities in the province, a desirable investment destination for them.
Would you be kind enough to tell major projects that have laid the foundation for boosting socioeconomic development and lifting Bac Lieu to a new plane?
Big, effective projects seen as driving forces for local socioeconomic development and elevating Bac Lieu to new heights include:
– Bac Lieu wind power plant (second phase completed) with 62 turbines with a combined capacity of 99.2 MW. The facility generated 388,604.1 MWh of electricity for the national grid as of the end of June 2017. This can be seen as the premise for Bac Lieu to become a leading producer and developer of renewable energy, clean energy.
– Aquatic breeding project, invested by Vietnam – Australia Bac Lieu Joint Stock Company, produces 20 billion baby fishes a year. Covering 300 ha, the project is applying a super-intensive shrimp farming model in the greenhouse. This is a technologically innovative shrimp farming model in the province.
– Vinh Loc food processing plant with a designed annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes has promoted the expansion of large-field farming model and business-farmer cooperation in product consumption. The first stage of the plant, with a yearly output of 100,000 tonnes, has initially generated good results for both farmers and the company.
– Pinetree garment factory with a designed capacity of 30 million products a year, invested by a South Korean company, has gone into operation and employed 2,000 labourers, mainly locals.
– Tra Kha Industrial Park is housing many motivating projects in the province like Saigon brewery (paying taxes worth VND300 billion a year) and Vinatex garment factory of Vietnam Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), which is under construction and planned to employ nearly 4,000 workers. The occupancy rate is over 70 per cent.
The decline in Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) rankings in 2015 and 2016 has placed much more work for the province to do to improve this reality. It is said that Bac Lieu needs to be more aggressive to create breakthroughs in the investment environment. What do you think about this?
I totally agree on this. Bac Lieu province’s continuous decline in PCI rankings, especially in 2016, has required the province to take urgent actions and effective measures to stop this movement and raise its PCI rankings in 2017 and beyond. Therefore, right after the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) released the PCI report in 2016, the Provincial People’s Committee directed the Department of Planning and Investment to analyse and assess causes and limitations resulting to falling scores and rankings.
From the department’s analysis and assessment, the Provincial People’s Committee issued the Decision No. 724/QD-UBND dated April 21, 2017 to set up the Working Group on PCI Improvement where the Chairperson of the Provincial People’s Committee serves as the Director, the Deputy Chairperson of the Provincial People’s Committee is the Deputy Director, and heads of provincial agencies and chairpersons of District/Town People’s Committees are members. The working group advised the Provincial People’s Committee to launch the “Action Programme for PCI Improvement in 2017 and beyond”.
Could you please provide more information about the Action Programme for Bac Lieu PCI Improvement in 2017 and beyond? What is the focus?
The Action Programme sets out specific targets for each year from 2017 to 2020, applied to all 10 component indicators and 111 specific targets. In addition, it assigns agencies and units that lead and monitor the performance of each component indicator and every target indicator. This is the new central content of the Programme. It details works and responsibility of every stakeholder, particularly the responsibility of the leader of stakeholder in improving specific targets to raise component indicators and the overall PCI Index.
The Action Programme outlines eight key measures to improve PCI scores in 2017 and beyond: (1) Guidance solution for implementation, (2) Administrative procedure reform solution, (3) Transparency enhancement solution, (4) Business support solution, (5) Training solution, (6) Communication solution, (7) Solutions on cooperation with VCCI, and (8) Financial resource solution.
Those solutions have brought in effective outcomes as many domestic and foreign investors have arrived in the province to study, access and register investment projects in the fields the province wants like renewable energy (12 investors), hi-tech agriculture (20 investors), travel, trade and service. This has proven that tasks and solutions that the province set out are right and effective.
Thank you very much!
