Hai Phong (VNA) – The northern city of HaiPhong sets to have about 33,000 operational enterprises by 2020 in an effort todevelop the private sector as an engine of the local economy.

To this end, the port city has taken various moves toimprove business climate and support the growth of startups and small- andmedium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Being aware of innovative startups’ potential, the city hasadopted a plan on local startup ecosystem development to 2020, said Director ofthe municipal Department of Science and Technology Duong Ngoc Tuan.

Under the plan, the city expects to have 100 startupprojects, 20 percent of which get funding from investors; and have 50 startupbusinesses, of which at least 20 are recognised as hi-tech firms.

Hai Phong has further improved a business environment.This year, the municipal People’s Committee opened 11 dialogues withenterprises to learn about their problems and help them remove barriers. TheHai Phong Economic Zone Authority has also held such type of dialogue topromptly resolve difficulties for investors.

As a result, the time required to complete businessregistration was cut by 23 percent while the time for a business to obtain an investmentpermit was reduced by 45 percent.

Furthermore, the city is drafting new policies to supportlocal SMEs, in which more than 256 hectares of land will be zoned off todevelop industrial clusters and areas for processing of agricultural, forestryand aquatic products and preferential land lease rates will be offered to theSMEs in these areas.

The SMEs will be supported to participate in supplychains in the fields of industry, agriculture, forestry and aquaculture.

As of November 22, Hai Phong has lured 295 FDI projects,worth over 13.4 billion USD, to its economic zones and industrial parks. Thenumber of projects invested by domestic firms stood at 136 with the totalcapital of approximately 136.2 billion VND (5.9 million USD).

In this year, the city expects to grant business licencesto 3,175 new enterprises who registered combined capital of over 19.4 trillionVND (840.1 million USD), up 5.34 percent and 8.45 percent, respectively, fromthe previous year.

The city estimates to collect about 70.7 trillion VND(3.06 billion USD) for the State budget, including 43 trillion VND (1.86billion USD) from export and import activities. –VNA