Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung chaired a consultation conference on foreign investment attraction and orientations in the northern province of Vinh Phuc on December 21, during which he affirmed that attracting foreign investment is a consistent policy of the Vietnamese Party and State.
The FDI sector has contributed to boosting technological reform, increasing labour productivity and product quality, creating more jobs, and fostering economic growth, Dung affirmed.
To better attract foreign investment, he stressed the need for localities nationwide to prepare the foundations for construction planning, combine the planning of industrial zones with urban planning, upgrade infrastructure, and step up connectivity.
Localities should ensure the interests of locals when conducting ground clearance to serve construction of industrial zones, while continuing to speed up administrative procedure reform, investing in human resources development, and ensuring security and order at foreign-invested areas, he suggested.
The Deputy PM also expressed his hope that foreign investors will strictly follow their commitments and Vietnamese law, pay attention to developing technology, and coordinate with Vietnamese enterprises to develop the support industry.
Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Vu Dai Thang said that after 30 years, the FDI sector has become an important part of the Vietnamese economy as a dynamically developing sector which has made significant contributions to the country’s socio-economic development.
As of November 2018, the country has around 27,000 foreign-invested projects from 128 nations and territories, with a total registered capital of nearly 340 billion USD, of which 188.8 billion USD was disbursed.
These projects focus on the industrial field, accounting for 57 percent of the total registered capital. Foreign investors were also present in all provinces and cities, mainly in the Red River and southeastern regions. Last year, the FDI sector contributed over 8 billion USD to the State budget, making up 17.1 percent of the total collection, and created jobs for 3.6 million direct labourers and 5-6 million indirect ones.
According to Tetsu Funayama, head of the Business Forum Committee under the Japanese Business Association in Vietnam, 65 percent of Japanese enterprises chose Vietnam as a top destination in Southeast Asia, with most paying close attention to the country’s policies to developing the support industry.
Therefore, he suggested Vietnam carry out more policies to boost the support industry and facilitate Japanese investment in the country.
Japan and Vietnam should expand cooperation in training Vietnamese experts, engineers, and technicians to improve the quality of human resources, he added.
At the conference, investment registration certificates were granted to several FDI projects in Vinh Phuc province.
Source: VNA