To become an industrialized province by 2025, Binh Phuoc is trying to reform investment attraction methods and actively preparing infrastructure conditions and resources for new investment inflows. Mr. Vo Sa, Director of Binh Phuoc Department of Planning and Investment, granted an interview to Vietnam Business Forum’s reporter on this issue. Song Uyen reports.

What do you think about the province's investment attraction results in recent years?

In the working principle of “In close partnership with investors and businesses", over the years, Binh Phuoc has stepped up administrative reform, especially administrative procedure reform and e-government construction, to reduce the service time for citizens and businesses. As for the investment sector, the province also drastically directed the implementation of the “two quick actions, three good actions” motto (two quick actions: Quick site clearance and quick investment procedures; three good actions: Good policy, good infrastructure and good sentiment).

Being active with investment promotion through many different channels, the province successfully organized two large-scale investment promotion conferences in 2018 and 2020 to catch the attention of many foreign investors. The province has also focused on localized investment promotion: Supporting businesses and investors to learn about policies, procedures, potential and markets and to carry out projects.

From those efforts, investors come to study and register more projects of a bigger scale. Specifically, Binh Phuoc attracted 120 domestic direct investment (DDI) projects with a total registered capital of VND12,000 billion in 2020 and 38 projects with VND4,000 billion in the first quarter of 2021, bringing total DDI projects to 1,130 projects with VND102,000 billion of investment capital. The province also licensed 36 FDI projects with US$437 million in 2020 and 24 projects with US$418 million (including capital increase of existing projects) in the first quarter of 2021, sending total FDI projects to 327 with US$3.3 billion of investment capital.

Business development also made progress, with 1,230 new companies with VND21,500 billion in 2020 and 271 new entities with VND5,425 billion in the first quarter of 2021, totaling 8,950 companies with a total registered capital of VND156 trillion. Business registrations increased by 10% a year on average, higher than the national median.

In the 2021-2025 period, with local available potential and advantages plus its determination to breakthrough development, for what specific investment projects will Binh Phuoc province focus on attracting funding?

The province will give priority to its strong fields such as agricultural and forest product processing, industrial zone infrastructure and trade center. In order to translate potential and advantages into specific projects for investors to access and invest more easily, the Provincial People's Committee issued a list of projects seeking domestic and foreign investment in the 2021-2025 period (Decision 3057/QD-UBND dated December 2, 2020 of the Provincial People's Committee). Accordingly, the province attracted 80 domestic and foreign investment projects, including 21 industrial zone infrastructure projects; 19 sector development projects (four cashew nut projects, two rubber timber projects, three fruit processing projects, three textile and garment, leather and footwear projects, four industrial supporting projects); three agricultural export service projects; 16 market, commercial and residential center construction projects; nine water supply and waste treatment projects; three water supply projects; and 10 trade, service and tourism projects and two agricultural projects.

What are different highlights of Binh Phuoc's investment attraction in the coming years?

In the coming years, in order to create new features in investment promotion and attraction, the province is actively shifting from direct contacts to online contact, from "open the door" to "knock on the right door” with the following highlighted contents:

Quick connection: Binh Phuoc connects Central Highlands provinces with Binh Duong, Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai through National Highways 13 and 14 and many provincial roads. In 2021, the province proposed, and was approved by the Government, to implement some key projects in 2021-2025, including Ho Chi Minh City - Thu Dau Mot - Chon Thanh Expressway, Di An - Loc Ninh Railway linked to Cai Mep - Thi Vai Port, Dak Nong - Binh Phuoc Expressway, Provincial Road 753B and Ma Da Bridge linked to Dong Nai and Long Thanh Airport together with wharves, yards and supporting services.

Safe destination: Binh Phuoc always ensures security and order. Especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the province has effectively prevented and controlled the plague. Currently, Binh Phuoc is one of 11 provinces that have not had a positive case of COVID-19. Thus, it is a safe destination for investors.

Big brands are catalysts to investment flows: The province has attracted many large domestic and foreign investors such as Vietnam Rubber Group, Becamex IDC Corporation, CP Group, Dabaco, New Hope and Jappa Comfeed. These brands are attractive derivatives for other investors. Particularly, Becamex Binh Phuoc Company also supported the province to successfully organize many investment promotion programs in the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

Online on-site investment promotion: With the decision to carry out “two quick actions, three good actions” approach, the province always focuses on supporting businesses from the time they start studying investment opportunities to the time they execute their projects to create a ripple effect on other businesses and investors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the province flexibly switched to online investment promotion. The province held an online investment promotion conference with Japanese investors on March 12, 2021 and a similar event for Taiwanese investors on March 30, 2021. Recently, on May 5, 2021, the province held an investment promotion conference with the United States.

E-government and smart locality: The province has launched an e-government system with many online public services to better serve people and businesses. Recently, on May 17, 2021, Binh Phuoc outstandingly rose to the top of the country as it was able to put 1,224 public services on the National Public Service Portal, ranking 2nd out of 63 provinces and cities in terms of issuing electronic authentication documents. The province also piloted building smart city services like Binh Phuoc Intelligent Operation Center (IOC), Dong Xoai IOC, Binh Long IOC and Phuoc Long IOC to create a basis for applying achievements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to meet local development and demands of citizens and businesses.

Currently, how is Binh Phuoc ready to attract more investors?

To catch new opportunities in the coming years, Binh Phuoc is:

Ready to resolve: The Resolution of the 11th Binh Phuoc Provincial Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term sets the goal: By 2025, the province is striving to become an industrialized province categorized into rapidly and sustainably developed provinces. It will have a relatively large economic scale and good well-being in the Southeast region. With aspiration and determination to make breakthroughs, the province achieved many good results in 2020: GRDP growth of 7.51%, ranking fifth in the country; GRDP per capita of VND67.3 million; budget revenue of VND11,608 billion; and export value of US$2.840 billion.  In 2021, despite facing many difficulties, the province is still determined to strive to achieve an economic growth target of 8.5 - 9% and budget revenue of VND13,000 billion

Ready premises: The province currently has 13 industrial parks with an aggregate area of 4,686 ha and eight smaller industrial complexes covering 380 ha, with eight industrial parks in operation. Currently, the province was approved by the Government for expanding 557.53-ha Minh Hung III Industrial Park, 317-ha Bac Dong Phu Industrial Park, 480-ha Nam Dong Phu Industrial Park and 1,000-ha Minh Hung - Sikico Industrial Park. At the same time, Binh Phuoc replanned and operated 6,317-ha Dong Phu Industrial and Residential Area, three industrial zones (1,300 ha) in Phu Rieng district and some industrial zones in Hoa Lu International Border Gate Economic Zone.

Ready for manpower: Human resource development is one of three strategic breakthrough programs of the province in the coming period. Currently, a series of projects and schemes will be prepared for human resources development for investors, including building smart schools; consolidating and upgrading Binh Phuoc Vocational College; reviewing and amending regulations and policies on human resources development and training in 2020-2025.

Ready for reform: In 2017, the Binh Phuoc Public Administration Service Center was put into operation and 100% of administrative procedures concerning investment and business are carried out online at Level 3 and Level 4. The province always decided to vigorously foster administrative reform and strengthen discipline based on support and service. In September 2020, all administrative procedures were reviewed: 30 administrative procedures were reduced and settlement time was shortened for 900 administrative procedures. Up to now, 458 administrative procedures are carried out in a single window and some procedures were completed in just one day.

Ready to support: Binh Phuoc is ready to listen to thoughts of investors, especially foreigners and discuss with them to remove difficulties and obstacles in order to strengthen confidence in the business community.

Additionally, the province is concentrating on implementing planning and mobilizing investment resources to develop modern and synchronous technical infrastructure and building an interregional transport system. To entice investors, the province issued incentive, support and preference policies for investment projects in 2021-2025. These important documents are the manual for the current investment promotion and attraction.

Thank you very much!

In recent years, although its overall PCI score looked up, the Market Entry Index decreased. Poor indicators included “It takes more than one month to complete all procedures for official operation”; “It takes more than three months to complete all the procedures for official operation”; and “Procedures for enterprise registration (change): Procedures are publicly listed”.

To improve this index, the Provincial People's Committee requested relevant bodies to receive and process electronic records instead of paper records for enterprises, comply with regulations on coordination and close supervision; review and streamline investment and business conditions; and appoint qualified staff to work at the Public Administration Service Center.

In 2021, the Department of Planning and Investment has worked with concerned bodies to integrate four processes into one, including business establishment registration, social insurance registration, labor declaration, and invoice registration at the Public Administration Service Center. All procedures are provided online to facilitate business registration and establishment.