Vinh Phuc charms investors with pro-business environment

Part of Khai Quang Industrial Zone in Vinh Yen city, Vinh Phuc province

In a recent symposium shedding light on the investment potential of Vinh Phuc province to businesses from the EU and the US, Ywert Visser, vice chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (Eurocham), noted that it is by no means difficult to name successful European businesses operating in Vinh Phuc, like Piaggio from Italy and De Heus from the Netherlands.

Significantly, De Heus Vietnam has made it among the top 5 animal feed makers in the country, with remarkable contributions to the agricultural development of Vinh Phuc and Vietnam.

In the words of Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Vu Dai Thang, with a strong presence of overseas investors, in the past years Vinh Phuc has succeeded in shaping out an enabling ecosystem for industrial development matching the requirements of investors and businesses from Europe and the US. These investors wield significant capital and require support from local partners for mutual development on a win-win basis.

Bearing the vision that planning must be a step ahead to ensure sustainable development, Vinh Phuc has chosen Niken Sekei Civil Engineering – Japan’s leading consultancy unit – to work on its urban development strategy as an important part in organising and managing investment promotion activities.

The province has also made efforts to ensure seamless planning from the master planning for socio-economic development to sectoral planning.

Vinh Phuc has completed the planning of 50 industrial zones (IZs) and clusters (ICs) over a total area of nearly 5,898 hectares, lying along arterial roads. 18 of these IZs cover more than 5,200ha and 32 ICs are spread over more than 600ha.

The province has made constant efforts to improve the local investment and business environment and its provincial competitiveness index (PCI) to better serve investors. Vinh Phuc has carved a spot among PCI ranking’s top performers. The criteria on legal institutions, time cost, and flexibility of the local government got the highest marks from the business community in the region.

According to Vinh Phuc People’s Committee Chairman Nguyen Van Tri, the province has been one of the bright spots of foreign investment attraction in the northern region. Until now, the province was home to 752 domestic investment projects valued at more than VND78 trillion ($3.39 billion) and 378 foreign investment projects from 17 countries and territories worth more than $5 billion in total committed capital, showing the trust of investors in the province’s investment environment and opportunities.

Constantly improving business environment

Specialists keep tabs on product quality at Toyota Vietnam Plant in Phuc Yen IZ in Vinh Phuc

Part of the Red River Delta, northern key economic zone, and Hanoi capital zone, Vinh Phuc converges convenient conditions for road, railway, and waterway transport.

The province is contiguous to Noi Bai International Airport, part of the Kunming-Lao Cai-Hanoi-Quang Ninh economic corridor and the northern economic development belt, ideal for the deployment of production and business investment projects.

Furthermore, favourable geographical and natural conditions, mild climate, and good terrain have been highlighting the province’s potential.

Vinh Phuc’s recipe to allure investors, however, is ceaseless efforts to constantly improve the local investment climate under the principles “businesses are the driving force to spur development”, “the success of businesses is the success of the province”, and “investors are citizens of Vinh Phuc”.

Vinh Phuc is lauded for having a transparent, wholesome, and impartial investment environment. One of the highlights is the province’s efforts to accompany investors’ development from the time they arrive to survey the province until their projects’ realisation.

The province has also taken measures to resolve investors’ difficulties in a timely manner.

Vinh Phuc People’s Committee has vowed to scale up efforts towards improving the business environment in a three-pronged offensive: improving the regulatory environment, providing better technical infrastructure, and enhancing service quality.

Besides implementing the investment incentives as per state regulations, the province has enacted several incentives of its own. Investment-related procedures are now settled under a one-stop shop mechanism which helps save time by one-third or even a half compared to regulated levels.

In addition, Vinh Phuc has been and is focusing on building a comprehensive technical infrastructure system in terms of transport, power, water, communications, and workers’ accommodation.

The province has presented policies supporting the construction of technical infrastructure inside and outside IZs and large-scale urban and service areas. From there, the investors would benefit from more favourable conditions and could save costs when landing projects in the province.