by THUY LINH 13/06/2024, 11:14

Fostering investment attraction and partnerships

Long An Province's goals are to aggressively seek out and choose investment projects that highlight quality, efficiency, technology, and environmental protection. It has also striven to establish a highly competitive investment and business climate.

*The delegation of Long An province witnessed Vietnamese businesses in the province and Korea handing over letters of intent for cooperation.*

Long An has concentrated on improving the investment and business climate in order to raise its Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI).

Efforts to improve investment climate

Mr. Truong Van Liep, Director of the Long An Department of Planning and Investment, stated that one of the province's primary objectives is to improve the investment environment, increase competitiveness, and stimulate invesment attraction.

With an increase of 2.49 points, Long An province moves up eight spots to arrive at the second position in the 2023 PCI rankings (70.94 points). The local business community appreciates the province’s efforts to reduce informal charges, reflected in its Informal Charge subindex score of 7.74 points, placing it second among 63 localities.

Additionally, Long An is recognized for its high-quality and efficient administrative reforms, earning a Time Cost subindex score of 8.40 points, placing it fourth rank out of 63 provinces and cities.

The province’s government is also appreciated for its proactive and innovative leadership, with a Proactivity subindex score of 7.24 points, making it fourth in the nation.

As for the PGI 2023 Provincial Green Index, Long An also had a breakthrough, rising 16 places from 2022 and ranking 12th in 2023. This is the great efforts of the provincial leaders in balancing economic development, sustainable environmental protection and green economy development.

Mr. Truong Van Liep stated that Long An has effectively capitalized on its competitive advantages, strengthened regional linkages, renovated its infrastructure, reformed its administrative procedures, reinvented its investment promotion strategy, and aggressively provided information to potential investors. These synchronized solutions have been highlighted as major breakthroughs that would significantly enhance Long An province's business and investment climate, allowing the province to attract both local and global investors.

Long An province has agreed to hold monthly dialogues with enterprises and business associations, as well as maintain close contact with business associations from other countries and territories, in order to remove barriers for enterprises and investors in a timely manner. It has also publicized investment plans and significant projects, allowing investors to gather information and make investment decisions.

Long An province has focused on the deployment of District and Department Competitiveness Indexes (DDCI) to systematically analyze the creativity and efficacy of economic management by district and department authorities that interact directly with investors. Long An province's DDCI is considered a significant step forward in reform, exhibiting Long An's strong commitment to openness, establishing a friendly and promising image of the local government toward increasing competitiveness, attracting investment, and fostering interaction with enterprises.

More investment incentives

According to Mr. Truong Van Liep, the Long An Provincial Plan for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, has defined Long An's development model as one center - two corridors - three economic zones - six dynamic axes. Long An has emphasized attracting investment in the following fields: industry 4.0, electronic components, software, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, eco-smart cities, maritime logistics services, border gate economic zones, high-tech agriculture, and renewable energy. At the same time, it has also sought investors to build a high-quality semiconductor training center.

Long An province completed and launched the Database of Planning Information, Investment Promotion (https://gis.longan.gov.vn) to help investors quickly understand the province's investment climate, policies, potential, and opportunities.

Along with local investment promotion, Long An province organized workshops to promote investment in traditional markets such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan (China), and other countries such as the United States and Cuba, while actively participating in the central government's programs to take advantage of opportunities to access potential markets.

Long An Province designed and released an Investment Promotion Program in 2024, which includes 11 actions organized into seven topics to attract investment.

Long An has achieved significant progress in attracting domestic and foreign investment flows by enhancing, innovating, and aggressively altering the investment promotion mindset to respond to the global investment shift.

So far, the province has more than 17,400 registered enterprises with a total capital of more than VND 379 trillion; more than 2,200 domestic direct investment projects with a pledged capital of more than VND 300 trillion; and 1,282 FDI projects with a pledged capital of $11,175.9 million, with 635 projects currently operational and a total investment of $4,213 million. In addition to a number of new projects, Long An is becoming more appealing to investors due to its more pleasant, efficient, and secure business environment.

Long An has long been one of the leading provinces and cities in the country in terms of administrative reform, business trust, and the creation of a transparent and competitive investment climate.