Hanoi (VNA) – Thanks to the development of anetwork of industrial parks and clusters as well as efforts to accompany investors, Hanoi has remained one of the bright spots of the country in foreigndirect investment (FDI) attraction.

According to the municipal Department of Planning andInvestment, so far this year, the city has attracted about 992.4 million USD inFDI, up 15% year on year, including 141.3 million USD invested in new projects.

The result helps the capital city remain among the top localities in FDI attraction.

Nguyen Ngoc Tu, Vice Director of the department, said thatthe FDI projects are mostly in the fields of import-export, goods distribution,construction, information technology, telecommunications, processing andmanufacturing.

The majority of investment in the city is from Japan, theRepublic of Korea and Singapore, while that from Europe and the US accounts foronly 10% of total FDI capital, he said.

FDI projects have played an important role in promoting thecity’s economic development, serving as a driving force for its exports andtechnology renovation, the official added.

Particularly, the FDI sector has helped expand the exportmarket and supported domestic firms to join the global supply chain through thesupply of materials and business cooperation, Tu held, adding that FDI firmshave also motivated domestic firms to renovate their technologies through thepressure from competition and requirements in adapting to the globalisation.

However, he also pointed to a number of shortcomings in thecity’s FDI quality and efficiency. FDI has still concentrated in anumber of labour intensive sectors using low technology, while thescale of the majority of FDI projects is small. The efficiency of the projectshas yet to match their capacity and advantages while FDI firms’ connectionswith other economic sector remains poor.

Tu said that in the future, the city will pay greaterattention to holding dialogues with investors to remove difficulties andobstacles facing them, and prioritising projects with large investment.

According to experts, one of the reasons that make Hanoiattractive to investors is the development of its infrastructure system.

In the 2021-2025 period, the city plans to establish 2-5 newindustrial parks, aiming to meet the demand of investment attraction andindustrial production development.

By 2030, the city expects to have 159 industrial clusters with a totalarea of over 3,204 hectares. Along with the operating clusters, the city isspeeding up the construction of new ones to meet investors’ demands.

A representative from the city Department of Industry andTrade said that currently, Hanoi has 70 operating industrial clusters covering1,686 hectares, attracting nearly 3,900 firms and more than 60,000 labourers.

Nguyen Manh Quyen, Vice Chairman of the city People’sCommittee, said that in the time to come, Hanoi will continue to apply administrativereform measures to speed up the construction of the technical infrastructuresystem for industrial parks and clusters, thus meeting the demand forproduction space for both domestic and foreign investors.

At the same time, the city aims to raise the number andquality of FDI projects by accompanying and supporting businesses andinvestors, and improving the business and investment environment andcompetitiveness, he said.

Quyen said that the municipal People’s Committee hasdirected departments and sectors to enhance the quality and efficiency of FDI, strengthened investment promotion activities and actively approached bigbusinesses to lure projects that are suitable to the development level of thecity.

Hanoi will also coordinate with the Ministry of Planning andInvestment and the Prime Minister’s Task Force to ensure the coherenceand efficiency of support to investors and investment attraction activities, and optimise advantages from free trade agreements, he said./.