Nguyen The Hung, deputy director of the Center for Southern Foreign Investment under the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Department made the state when mentioning Binh Duong’s FDI attraction in 2010 and improvement of investment climate over the past time. He said: “For a long time, Binh Duong has always taken the lead in competitive ability regarding investment climate. The most important things for the result is the high determination of provincial leaders and administration agencies…

 What is your assessment of Vietnam’s FDI attraction over the past time?

 In general, Vietnam has made strongly changes in FDI attraction after four years of joining WTO. In 2008, FDI attraction reached more than US$71bln. But, due to the impact of the world economic crisis, the sector only gained more than US$21bln in 2009.

 

 Whilst, in 2010, the sector only reached around 60% compared to that of 2009. The southern key economic zone also only absorbed VND5.4bln in FDI capital in the first 11 months of 2010 or 44% of the country’s total FDI capital. Since 1988, the zone has lured US$90.6bln in FDI capital or 47.4% of the country’s total FDI capital. Among 10 localities taking lead in FDI attraction, there are 4 from the zone, including HCM city, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

 What about Binh Duong’s FDI attraction?

 So far, Binh Duong province has attracted nearly US$14bln in FDI capital from over 2,000 projects and is now ranking the 5th among the country’s top localities in FDI attraction. Binh Duong has also appreciated as a locality with the country’s most open and friendly investment climate for a long time. Before 2009, Binh Duong also always took lead in PCI for many consecutive years…

 According to you, what are the differences of the FDI attraction policies between Binh Duong and other localities?

In Binh Duong, the FDI attraction policies have been grasped thoroughly from provincial Party Committee, People’s Council, sectors, department to the business community. Noticeably, provincial leaders have always kept a close watch over the FDI attractive policies and slogans for timely improvement regarding investment climate…

 What are the shortcomings of FDI attraction of the country in general and of Binh Duong in particularly?

For me, common shortcomings in FDI attraction are infrastructure facilities that have not yet been developed in a synchronous way and workforce with limited qualifications.

 Many great localities, including Binh Duong, Dong Nai, HCM city, businesses and organizations at home and abroad have set up vocational training facilities to supply workforce at businesses’ requirements. Some localities in the southern key economic zone have also not braced up investment attraction for the projects using many laborers and now focus on those having hi-technologies.

 What should Binh Duong do in FDI attraction to ensure sustainable development?

 Currently, environmental protection and climate change prevention are “hot” problems. Binh Duong and other localities need to pay more attention to environmental protection in the process of promoting industrial development.

Binh Duong also needs to put focus on the management of concentrated wastewater treatment stations at industrial parks. As surveyed, some industrial parks, namely Vietnam-Singapore, Song Than, My Phuoc…, have well realized the State’s regulations on environmental protection…

 Thanks a lot!

Reported by Thanh Son-Translated by K.T