How has the investment promotion and attraction and business development efforts in Ha Nam province performed in the past time?

Defining that investment attraction is a main driving force for groundbreaking economic development, Ha Nam province has stepped up investment promotion and attracted many large enterprises to study and research investment opportunities in the province. In 2022, the province licensed 62 investment projects (26.5% more than in 2021), including 17 FDI projects and 45 domestic projects with a total registered capital of US$175 million and VND19,990.7 billion (US$850 million). Currently, 14 countries and territories have investment projects in the province. South Korea is the largest investor with 149 projects and US$1.7 billion, followed by Japan with 111 projects and US$1.3 billion.

Ha Nam has attracted many large industrial, commercial and service projects, including a US$300 million LED bulb manufacturing factory invested by Seoul Semiconductor Vina Ltd, a US$263-million LCD-QISDA Vietnam display factory invested by Qisda Corporation, a US$274-million high-tech electronic factory invested by Wistron Corporation, a VND600-billion Muong Thanh Ha Nam Hotel Complex invested by Muong Thanh Group, and the US$570-billion Ha Nam trade-service complex construction project invested by Vingroup.

To selectively attract and invest in land-saving, energy-efficient and labor-extensive projects and take quality, performance, technology and environmental protection as key assessment criteria, Ha Nam province will focus on calling for foreign enterprises to unlock local strengths in line with the province's orientation.

In particular, the province always supports enterprises to actively deal with their difficulties and develop their business operations. In 2022, the province had 789 new enterprises and 63 company branches and representative offices with a combined investment capital of VND10,815 billion (US$500 million), up 18% in entities and 4.5% in value year on year, respectively. At present, Ha Nam has 8,215 companies, including 5,500 operational ones.

How has the province’s investment promotion and attraction been focused? What are the new remarkable contents?

While boosting investment promotion in targeted to partners and markets, the province has also focused on “localized investment promotion” with many creative and effective solutions, especially through innovations in business development support.

First of all, the province regularly exchanges, communicates and establishes relationships with domestic and foreign agencies, units and organizations to coordinate and participate in investment promotion events. During investment promotion trips, provincial delegations pay special attention to large corporations which seek to invest in Ha Nam to directly introduce general information about its investment potential, advantages, opportunities, policies and results; listen to their opinions; answer their questions and concerns about investment research in the province; and pledge to fulfill its commitments to investors.

The province also maintains regular business dialogues in a bid to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles faced by investors, and ensure projects are implemented as scheduled to further strengthen their trust and create ripple effects on new investors. In 2022, Ha Nam leaders held many business conferences and meetings to learn the opinions and recommendations of businesses so as to introduce support solutions for them to deal with their difficulties in business operations.

Ha Nam also further reforms administrative procedures, especially those relating to granting certificates of investment, construction, environment and land, and actively supports enterprises to recruit workers, carry out procedures for registration of corporate seals and tax codes, and directly act as focal points for granting land use right certificates.

In addition to focusing on developing provincial plans and supplementing industrial zones and hi-tech parks, Ha Nam province prioritizes investment resources for synchronous socioeconomic infrastructure, especially traffic infrastructure, to ensure smooth connectivity, power supply infrastructure, telecom systems and water supply and drainage networks to project locations to meet enterprises’ demands.

Moreover, the province focuses on promoting its advantages; pays attention to prepare a clean land fund, and invests in building and perfecting synchronous and modern industrial park infrastructure to meet increasing requirements of investors and social infrastructure such as housing for workers, kindergartens and commercial services for foreign experts and workers in industrial zones. At the same time, Ha Nam plans and attracts businesses to build affordable accommodations for workers together with industrial parks and amusement parks for experts and workers; accelerate site clearance; and continue to improve service quality, especially electricity and water services, to ensure good services for tenants.

In 2021, Ha Nam's Market Entry Index scored 6.73 points, down 1.46 points from 2020, the lowest in five years. What do you think about this result? What are bottlenecks that need to be removed? What solutions has the Department of Planning and Investment advised the provincial government to carry out for better performance in the future?

After the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) 2021 was announced, the Department of Planning and Investment advised the Provincial People’s Committee to issue Official Letter 2369/UBND-TH dated September 5, 2022 on implementing tasks and solutions for PCI improvement in 2022.

Based on its assigned tasks, the department thoroughly informs relevant agencies to drastically and consistently perform tasks and solutions to raise the Market Entry Cost Index, a PCI component, by publicly listing all business registration forms; enhancing service quality, and assisting business registration, which is targeted to be within 1.5 working days. Furthermore, the department actively and transparently publicizes administrative procedures, promotes information technology application to online business registration; and improves professional qualifications and service attitudes of public employees at the business registration bureau at the Provincial Public Administration Service Center.

Thank you very much!