Ba Ria-Vung Tau (VNS/VNA) - Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, one of eightprovinces and cities in the Southern Key Economic Zone, has for many years beenan ideal destination for foreign investors thanks to its natural advantages andcomprehensively developed infrastructure in addition to attractive incentives.

Investors flocking to the province often invest in preferential sectors such asindustry, ports and logistics, supporting industries, tourism and high-techagriculture.

To attract more local and foreign investors, province authorities have keptimproving the investment climate by adopting policies and solutions tostrengthen administration and competitiveness.

The year 2019 is a clear example of these efforts with many resolutions andprogrammes being put in place.

The province announced an action plan to deploy the Government’s resolutionNo. 02/NQ-CP dated January 1 on solutions to improve the investment environmentand competitiveness.

An action plan was also announced to deploy the Government’s resolution No139/NQ-CPdated September 11 on cutting enterprises’ expense.

Also in 2019 the province has promulgated a number of regulations to identifyinvestors who want to invest in high-tech and organic agriculture.

A document to guide their selection where land use is involved was also issued.

Besides, Ba Ria-Vung Tau has focused on solutions to improve its position inthe provincial competitiveness index.

The provincial People’s Committee has assigned departments to organiseprogrammes to support local companies investing in the province.

The province’s efforts to improve the investment climate has been welcomed byinvestors.

“Authorities in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, such as the Ba Ria-Vung TauIndustrial Zones Authority, and others, are active in attracting foreigncapital and offering one-stop services,” Kazama Toshio, deputy general directorof the Phu My 3 Industrial Zone, said.

“This has helped speed up the investment licence application and approvalprocess, which is a great back-up for attracting foreign capital.”

In addition to promulgating new regulations and action plans, local authoritiesalso routinely meet with business executives to help solve difficulties facedby their companies while doing business in the province.

Vo Trinh Trieu, director of the provincial Investment, Trade, Tourism PromotionCentre, said: “Recently we have been paying attention to providing informationto investors, connecting investors by organising conferences and meeting withinvestors.”

The province has been stepping up investment promotion activities bystrengthening cooperation with international organisations like JapanInternational Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan External Trade Organisation(JETRO), American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham), and European Chamberof Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) so that they could apprise investors aboutkey investment projects in Ba Ria-Vung Tau as well as sectors it is focusingon, according to the official.

Thanks to these efforts, the province had a fruitful 2019 in terms of attractinginvestment.

This year the province has issued investment certificates for 38 new projectsand permitted 27 others to increase their investment.

The total investment this year has been worth 2.35 billion USD, 500 million USDin new projects.

The Southern Oil Refinery Complex has increased its capital by 1.4 billion USD.

Domestic investment was worth 13.037 trillion VND (579 million USD) in 58 newprojects. Eight others increased their capital by 1.63 trillion VND (71.5million USD).

Next year, Ba Ria-Vung Tau will selectively choose projects based on criteriasuch as prioritised sectors and nations to ensure things go smoothly.

It will focus on promoting major projects that use advanced technology and areenvironment-friendly, with sectors including logistics, supporting industries,high-tech agriculture, and tourism being prioritised.

It will identify major global corporations for soliciting investment.

Activities to promote investment, trade and tourism will be undertaken togetherwith partners such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, North America,Russia, and ASEAN.

Efforts will be made to further improve the business climate.

Provincial authorities have assured they would provide comprehensiveinformation about legal amendments and policies to attract investment in 2020.

To improve its competitiveness, the province will strongly boost integrationinto the international market.

Regular reviews will be done to handle overdue projects.

Next year the province will also undertake programmes to assess the efficiencyof sectors and wards to improve their transparency and management.

Information technology will also be used to improve their management./.