Altering tactics in Quang Binh to maximise investment

How has the province changed its development scenario to best suit the situation it is facing in 2022 and beyond?

Vu Dai Thang, Secretary of Quang Binh Party Committee

During 2020-2021, most local socioeconomic development indexes were largely affected. With the timely engagement of the whole political system in the province, the pandemic was quickly controlled, and Quang Binh managed to maintain positive growth.

In that time we have learned many valued lessons. Basically, we have not changed our development goal of turning Quang Binh into a fairly developed province in the central region by 2025. This year, Quang Binh puts a high focus on driving economic growth.

Towards this goal, Quang Binh will be concentrating on calling for investment in all fields, yet the approach is different. Accordingly, the main focus is removing bottlenecks for enterprises, especially administrative procedures. Unnecessary processes shall be shortened, whereas public investment projects and private projects will be equally treated.

Quang Binh is slated to hold its major investment promotion conference in Ho Chi Minh City on March 25. What makes this event different from previous ones?

Compared to the previous year, we are changing our approach to investment promotion by holding the event in Ho Chi Minh City, as the city features a strong presence of the most dynamic investors across the board, such as in manufacturing, forestry, services, and tourism. Our management will proactively meet and directly invite investors to set up shop in the province.

Southern businesses were severely affected during the pandemic, thus hosting the investment promotion conference in Ho Chi Minh City proves timely and rational. The city is home to the most dynamic real estate businesses, with a fresh and innovative mindset about developing products and services, helping to form a healthy and upscale real estate market.

Quang Binh is also paying special attention to spurring local wood industry development as the province has the second-largest forest coverage in the country. Businesses based in Ho Chi Minh City can invest in wood material processing in our province.

Besides that, Quang Binh has a 120km-long coastal strip, with total coastal land reaching ​​25,000 sq.km. Despite this large area, current investment has just been confined to nearshore sectors.

How can you assess the development of the more promising sectors, and what can be done to promote as many provincial advantages as possible?

Over recent years, we have seen a lot of evolution for the aforementioned sectors. Specifically, some resorts and real estate projects have already been put into operation, urbanisation is speeding up, and numerous renewable energy projects have been launched. However, these outcomes do not yet match up with the provincial advantages.

There are a lot of favourable natural conditions in Quang Binh such as forests, seas, the world’s natural heritage, islands, and large areas. However, tourism in the province has yet to promote and utilise all its advantages, and we do not have premium resorts.

In the energy sector, meanwhile, we have been utilising the coastal areas, but offshore is still untapped. So all of these three sectors are promising land to lure more investors.

How can you persuade local and foreign investors to choose Quang Binh and support sustainable, long-term ventures?

Investment promotion is only the first step to introducing the advantages and policies of the province. After that, it is more important to convince investors to develop here. So all authorities should look to support the business community from the beginning.

At this investment promotion conference, we invited businesses that have already succeeded in Quang Binh to share experiences and call on others to do the same. For example, the B&T wind energy project set up 60 turbines within only 10 months, so we can see the progress that can be made if state authorities help to serve businesses.

We have decided to maintain 10 commitments in particular. These include accompanying and serving businesses; cutting time and costs of administrative procedures; cutting down the number of inspections; applying maximum incentives; and providing public and transparent information on land, planning, and portfolios.

In addition, we will look to fully supply power, water, and telecommunications; support recruitment and training labour for new projects; ensure security; secure the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises; and establish a mechanism to support businesses through dialogues and hotlines between the business community and the province’s leaders.