Long An (VNA) – The southern province of Long An is taking actionto increase the efficiency of FDI attraction as this form of investment playsan important role in the locality’s socio-economic development, said Chairmanof the provincial People’s Committee Tran Van Can.

According to Can, the province has stepped up investmentpromotion both inside and outside Vietnam, targeting big groups.

It has also implemented administrative reform well, improvedthe business and investment climate, and increased its ranking on theprovincial competitiveness index, especially in the fields of investment, land,taxation, customs, and labour.

In addition, Long An has regularly organised dialogues withinvestors to help them deal with difficulties and speed up the implementationof projects, while at the same time working to build a convenient, open, andtransparent business and investment environment.

Attention has been paid to intensifying tax inspections overforeign-invested enterprises to detect violations early in order to ensureequality in tax declaration and payment for businesses.

Since the beginning of the year, Long An has grantedinvestment licences to 51 projects worth 193.8 million USD. Moreover, 91.1million USD has been added to 50 existing projects in the period. To date, theprovince has attracted 928 FDI projects with a total registered capital of over5.9 billion USD, mainly in the fields of garment and textiles, footwear, andfood processing.

Taiwan (China) ranks first in both the number of projectsand capital amongst the 37 nations and territories investing in the locality,with a total of 192 projects worth 1 billion USD. It is followed by theRepublic of Korea, Japan, China, and Singapore.

The export turnover for FDI enterprises enjoyed an averagegrowth of 27.6 percent per year during 1996-2016, with the value hitting 2.6billion USD last year. The number of foreign-invested exporters rose from 18 in1996 to 300 at the last count.

Nguyen Van Tieu, Director of the provincial Department ofPlanning and Investment, said that FDI enterprises have made significantcontributions to the locality’s industrial production and exports. Their contributionsto the State budget have increased year after year, but only accounted for 22percent of the province’s total budget collection in 2017.

The figure has yet to meet the enterprises’ potential in termsof development investment, he said.

He added that FDI enterprises currently employ some 126,000labourers, equal to nearly half of the locality’s total labourers. –VNA