Vinh Phuc triumphs amid storm

The Piaggio manufacturing plant is one of many projects helping the province hit top gear

According to the Vinh Phuc People’s Committee report, in 2010 the province’s economy expanded 19.11 per cent and per capita income grew 15.1 per cent on-year to hit $1,630.

“With the above figures, Vinh Phuc’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth was much higher than Vietnam’s  rate while its per capita GDP ranked third in the northern key economic zone, just behind Hanoi ($2,059) and Haiphong ($1,800-$1,900),” said the Vinh Phuc People’s Committee chairman Phung Quang Hung.

The report said the local service sector saw the highest growth of 23.5 per cent in 2010, followed by construction-industry sector with 17.9 per cent and agro-forestry-fishery sector 14.5 per cent.

Last year, Vinh Phuc continued to witness positive economic structure shift. The ratio of industry-construction  accounted for 56 per cent of the province’s GDP and services 30.2 per cent while agro-forestry-fishery made up 13.7 per cent.

The province’s state budget revenues surged 42.2 per cent on-year to hit VND14.5 trillion ($743.5 million) last year, according to the report.

Vinh Phuc’s industrial production value in 2010 reached VND41.46 trillion ($2.12 billion), a rise of 20.4 per cent against the previous year. The foreign-invested sector’s industrial production value grew the strongest, at 23.6 per cent on-year, followed by the state-owned sector, at 13 per cent, and the private sector 2.7 per cent.

Despite numerous difficulties such as prolonged droughts and epidemics, the agro-forestry-fishery sector reached total production value of VND2.62 trillion ($134.3 million) in 2010, surpassing the yearly target by 7.1 per cent.  

According to the report, the provincial service sector continued to attain a high growth in 2010. Total retail sales and services were estimated to climb VND15.64 trillion ($802 million), a jump of 31.5 per cent against 2009.  

“Other local sectors such as banking, tourism and transport also witnessed good results in 2010,” the report said.

Thanks to the global economic recovery, the province’s total export earnings was estimated to fetch $486.2 million in 2010, a rise of 21.9 per cent against 2009 while import turnover witnessed an on-year growth of 9.4 per cent to reach an aggregate value of $1.56 billion, exceeding the year’s target by 4.3 per cent.

The report said Vinh Phuc province continued to see strong investment inflows in 2010, especially foreign direct investment (FDI). The province attracted 160 projects in 2010, up 44.1 per cent on-year, including 15 FDI projects with total registered capital of some $250 million, a rise of 154.3 per cent on-year and 145 domestic direct investment (DDI) projects capitalised at VND6.74 trillion ($345.6 million). Thus, by the end of 2010, Vinh Phuc had pulled in 601 projects, comprising of 121 FDI projects with combined registered capital of $2.32 billion and 480 DDI projects worth VND30.27 trillion ($1.55 billion).

According to the report, 40.4 per cent of the total FDI projects in the province was realised so far, while the rate for the DDI projects was 35 per cent.

In 2010, additional 45 projects were put into operation in Vinh Phuc (15 FDI projects and 30 DDI ones), raising the total number of operational projects to 220 (85 FDI projects and 135 DDI projects) across the province so far.

With an aim to boosting investment inflows, Vinh Phuc authorities focused on developing a series of industrial parks and clusters, Hung said, adding as many as 24 industrial parks, covering 6,038 hectares, had been approved by the prime minister to be built in the province.

Of the total, four industrial parks have been operational and three others are under infrastructure construction.

By the end of 2010, the occupancy rate per planned area at these industrial parks stood at 35.1 per cent.

“In general, the occupancy rate at local industrial parks is not high as site clearance is facing obstacles, technical infrastructure system, particularly environmental pollution treatment facilities have not been invested synchronously while construction of some licenced industrial parks was at snail pace due to limited financial capability,” the report said. 

By the end of 2010, Vinh Phuc province was home to 4,054 businesses with total registered capital of VND20.67 trillion ($1.06 billion). Particularly, private enterprises in the province were operating more and more effectively, creating jobs for thousands of local residents. In 2010, additional 956 private businesses were set up with combined registered capital of VND6.48 trillion ($332.3 million).

Vinh Phuc attaches much importance to the employment and human resources development. In 2010, the province provided jobs for some 21,000 labourers. The rate of skilled workers reached 51.2 per cent in 2010, up 5.2 percentage points compared with last year. The rate of poverty households also dropped to 7 per cent in 2010.   

“Successes in socio-economic development in the recent years have made Vinh Phuc province a new attractive position to investors around the whole country and globally,” Hung said.

He acknowledged provincial prominent socio-economic achievements in 2010 and said the good results would help assist the province’s socio-economic plans for 2011.

However, Hung admitted that the economic growth was high but not sustainable because the province’s economic growth largely relied on the foreign-invested sector which accounted for more than 70 per cent of the province’s total production value in 2010 while the sector incurred big impacts from the global economic crisis.

Vinh Phuc, more than 50 kilometres from Hanoi, aimed to become an industrialised province by 2020.