Long An cultivating strong pro-business environment

Long An is currently among the localities taking the lead nationwide in investment attraction, resumed production and business, as well as socioeconomic development. The province has risen into a stellar position in investment attraction across the Delta region and indeed the whole country, particularly when it comes to overseas funding.

In its diverse development phases, the province takes outside state budget capital sources as an important motivating force to drive local socioeconomic development. Hence, the province has been deploying a raft of measures to support businesses’ rebound efforts, leveraging suitable adaptation roadmaps.

In the first five months of this year, Long An granted certificates to 46 domestic investment projects valued at $544.6 million in newly-committed capital volume, and ratified capital addition for 12 schemes with supplemental capital volume surpassing $43 million.

Compared to one year ago, despite a drop of 25 projects in the number of newly-licensed ones, newly-committed capital volume reached $309.8 million. Now, Long An is home to over 2,160 domestic ventures valued at $11.64 billion in total investment value.

As for foreign investment, in the year to date Long An has licensed 23 projects valued at $243.6 million and approved capital addition to 31 existing initiatives with supplemental capital volume reaching $151.8 million. The total newly-committed and supplemental capital volume touched $395.4 million.

Long An is home to around 1,140 foreign-invested projects worth more than $9.78 billion, of which 588 have become operational with a total capital value surpassing $3.62 billion.

Nguyen Van Duoc, Secretary of Long An Party Committee and Nguyen Van Ut, Chairman of Long An People’s Committee grant investment certificates to new investors

Constant promotion

This year Long An has hailed a string of sizable projects, such as Coca-Cola injecting more than $136 million into building a beverage plant at Phu An Thanh Industrial Zone (IZ) in the province’s Ben Luc district.

At a meeting for investment promotion at Phuoc Dong Wharf IZ in Can Duoc district in April, the province granted investment certificates to four groups with the total registered value reaching $66.5 million. They included vegetable oil maker Tan Binh-Nakydaco JSC, TNI Trading and Service Co., Ltd., Hi-crete Construction Chemicals company, and Allmed Medical Textiles Vietnam.

At the Nam Thuan IZ project launching ceremony also in April, provincial leaders granted investment certificates to four new ventures in Xuyen A IZ valued at around $214 million.

To retain the position as an attractive investment destination, Long An is constantly implementing comprehensive and synchronous solutions to enhance the local business environment, and improve the Provincial Competitiveness Index, from there creating a breakthrough in attraction and cultivating trust among domestic and foreign businesses.

In parallel to expediting solutions, Long An has constantly promoted administrative procedure reforms, helping to save time and cost for businesses from the moment they enter the market.

The province has allured investors not only by virtue of having a propitious geographical location adjacent to Ho Chi Minh City, along with increasingly synchronous infrastructure but also because of the province’s commitment to swiftly settle administrative procedures for businesses.

Long An leaders grant decision on establishing Nam Tan Tap Industrial Zone

Maintaining dialogue

In recent times, the province has been able to grant investment certificates to many within a day of receiving completed and legitimate documents. They have included a South Korean-backed project by Lotte Eco Logis Long An Co., Ltd. located in Phu An Thanh IZ in Ben Luc district, with the total capital surpassing $13.45 million in phase 1; a $43.5 million project from vegetable oil maker Tan Binh-Nakydaco JSC; and the aforementioned Coca-Cola Vietnam plant.

Nguyen Thanh Thanh, director of Long An Economic Zones Management Authority, said that the quick settlement of investment procedures is a top priority for provincial leaders, creating favourable conditions for both infrastructure developers and common investors.

“This helps instil trust among the investors as well as ensure reaching the expectations with attraction, through realising the leaders’ commitment to always accompanying businesses,” Thanh said.

In addition, the province has actively studied trends of larger corporations in the country to approach and connect investment into areas in which the province has advantages. At the same time, efforts are made to prematurely publicise general master plans and major projects for the benefit of businesses.

In addition, efforts are geared towards maintaining periodic dialogues with businesses, as well as close contact with domestic and foreign business associations, to be able to promptly grasp information and focus on tackling impediments enterprises have been facing to set their minds at ease when doing business in the province.

Long An has been promoting economic restructuring towards industrialisation and modernisation, taking industry, trade-services and urban area development as the driving force to beef up development.

In light of the development strategy for this decade, Long An aims to form an innovation hub for the southern key economic zone and the Mekong Delta. The province is effectively courting funding flows from Japan and South Korea, and aims to lure more from the EU and the United States to diversify capital sources.

Long An is also keen on attracting investment in industrial development in a modern, large-scale, and environmentally-friendly direction, spearheading service industries associated with environmental protection, solving social problems, efficiently using land funds, and boosting the quality and efficiency of capital.

Priority has been given to attracting projects in digital transformation and innovation, supporting industry, quality human resource training, and building synchronous and modern infrastructure.

Simultaneously, the province focuses on attracting foreign investment flow from small- and medium-sized enterprises that satisfy technology requirements and engage in the global production and value chains, helping the country to improve production capacity and develop new industries and occupations, and create more jobs.

All the determinations and efforts to reform administrative procedures and improve the local investment and business climate that Long An has been implementing are aimed at turning the province into an increasingly attractive, friendly and impartial destination in the eyes of investors.