Long An moves to attract more foreign investment
The southern province of Long An is taking action to increase the efficiency of FDI attraction as this form of investment plays an important role in the locality’s socio-economic development, said Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Tran Van Can.
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According to Can, the province has stepped up investment promotion both inside and outside Vietnam, targeting big groups.
It has also implemented administrative reform well, improved the business and investment climate, and increased its ranking on the provincial competitiveness index, especially in the fields of investment, land, taxation, customs, and labour.
In addition, Long An has regularly organised dialogues with investors to help them deal with difficulties and speed up the implementation of projects, while at the same time working to build a convenient, open, and transparent business and investment environment.
Attention has been paid to intensifying tax inspections over foreign-invested enterprises to detect violations early in order to ensure equality in tax declaration and payment for businesses.
Since the beginning of the year, Long An has granted investment licences to 51 projects worth US$193.8 million. Moreover, US$91.1 million has been added to 50 existing projects in the period. To date, the province has attracted 928 FDI projects with a total registered capital of over US$5.9 billion, mainly in the fields of garment and textiles, footwear, and food processing.
Taiwan (China) ranks first in both the number of projects and capital amongst the 37 nations and territories investing in the locality, with a total of 192 projects worth US$1 billion. It is followed by the Republic of Korea, Japan, China, and Singapore.
The export turnover for FDI enterprises enjoyed an average growth of 27.6% per year during 1996-2016, with the value hitting US$2.6 billion last year. The number of foreign-invested exporters rose from 18 in 1996 to 300 at the last count.
Nguyen Van Tieu, Director of the provincial Department of Planning and Investment, said that FDI enterprises have made significant contributions to the locality’s industrial production and exports. Their contributions to the State budget have increased year after year, but only accounted for 22% of the province’s total budget collection in 2017.
The figure has yet to meet the enterprises’ potential in terms of development investment, he said.
He added that FDI enterprises currently employ some 126,000 labourers, equal to nearly half of the locality’s total labourers.
