Hanoi focuses on large-scale firms in FDI attraction strategy

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

At a recent working session with Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Doan Toan reported that with 7.5 billion USD in FDI, the city has become the biggest FDI attractor of the country last year.

As of December 31, 2018, Hanoi hosted nearly 4,500 valid projects with total registered investment of 36.6 billion USD, of which 18.9 billion USD was disbursed.

The contributions of the FDI sector to the development of the city include the transfer of advanced technology in sectors such as telecommunications, electronics and industry.

The sector has helped transform the economic structure and enhance the competitiveness of the city by bringing more services to international standards.

Meanwhile, the FDI sector has contributed to promoting administrative reform, creating a favourable business environment. Under statistics released in April 2018, Hanoi ranked 13th out of 63 cities and provinces in the provincial competitiveness index and second in the public administrative reform index. Hanoi also stood second in the level of readiness for applying information-communications technology.

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung attributed the results to the city’s efforts in classifying FDI projects into different groups, thus giving them proper support. Municipal leaders have held regular meetings with major investors to discuss promising sectors in the next five years.

According to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Vu Dai Thang, the ministry plans to coordinate with Hanoi in investment promotion through various policies.

Chung said that in the future, Hanoi will concentrate on luring large-scale firms to thereby attract smaller investors from other countries.

In 2019, the city has defined a number of prioritised sectors for attracting investment, including urban infrastructure construction, environment, processing, and areas with high added value such as information technology, tourism, trade and logistics.

Meanwhile, Toan said that Hanoi will build a service-oriented administration, while improving the investment environment, speeding up administrative reform and removing difficulties facing foreign investors.