Da Nang city has emerged as a popular destination for investors from Japan (Photo: VNA)Da Nang (VNA) – After lagging behind other provinces and cities nationwide inattracting Japanese investment, the central city of Da Nang has emerged as a populardestination for investors from the Land of the Rising Sun.
Statisticsreleased by the municipal Department of Planning and Investment showed thatJapan investors have to date poured more than 950 million USD in 194 projects,ranking first among over 40 countries and territories investing in the city.
According to ViceChairman of the Da Nang People’s Committee Le Trung Chinh, Japan has been aleading foreign investor in Da Nang in the number of projects. Japanese firmshave greatly contributed to the city’s economic development, creating jobs forabout 30,000 workers in Da Nang and neighbouring localities.
The city hashuge demand for high quality accommodation and tourism services, he added.
Japan’s MikazukiGroup recently announced its investment worth 50 million USD to build a nightmarket and pedestrian zone next to the Mikazuki Spa & Hotel project that isunderway near Xuan Thieu beach.
Besides, the SunFrontier Da Nang One Member Limited Company, a wholly Japanese-invested firm,began the construction of its 29-storey building in the central city.
Earlier, aluxury apartment project of the company was inaugurated in the city’s Son Tradistrict, which was built at a cost of more than 27 million USD.
In late 2016,one of Japan’s leading hotel groups Route Inn channelled about 58 million USDinto a hotel project in Da Nang.
Japanese-fundedprojects in other sectors of the city include those of Viet Hoa Electronics Co.Ltd. with a budget of 119 million USD; and of Mabuchi Motor Vietnam and DaiwaVietnam with registered capital worth 89 million USD and 45 million USD,respectively.
Notably, thereare total 162 industrial projects out of more than 700 foreign directinvestment projects, accounting for over 47 percent of the FDI capital in thecity.
Experts notedthat Japanese investors pay great attention to information provided by theirpredecessors when doing business abroad. Therefore, to attract Japanese capitalinflux, local authorities should work towards policy transparency for currentfirms, particularly in tax collection, land policy, investment procedure,customs clearance and import-export.
The city was alsoadvised to improve its infrastructure, including Da Nang airport, seaports, electricpower systems and wastewater treatment systems in industrial parks.
Da Nang shouldfoster twin-city relations with Japanese localities and business associationsto better call for more investment. The city can consider sending workers fortraining in Japan before returning home.
However,bottlenecks remain in Da Nang’s investment climate, said Director of themunicipal Department of Planning and Investment Tran Phuoc Son. Many projectsdeemed attractive to foreign investors, yet land planning procedures hinder theirdevelopment, he said.
In addition, thecity’s overloaded infrastructure and the fledgling supporting industry havemade it difficult to attract investment in high technology.
Da Nang iscurrently home to six industrial parks and the city plans to set up three others,namely Hoa Cam (second stage), Hoa Nhon and Hoa Ninh, in the coming time.
Between Januaryand June this year, the city drew more than 542 million USD worth of foreigninvestment.
Da Nangsuccessfully organised a spring conference with investors, during whichinvestment registration certificates were granted to eight projects worth over492 million USD. Meanwhile, the local authorities allowed research for 11potential projects worth nearly 3.5 billion USD.
The city toppedthe country in public administrative reform index from 2012 to 2016, and camefourth in 2017, while maintaining its top position in ICT development index in10 consecutive years.
Japan was placedthird among 65 countries and territories investing in new projects in Vietnamduring the first seven months of 2019, data of the General Statistics Officeshow.
In the period,new Japanese-invested projects worth 1.12 billion USD was licensed, accountingfor 13.6 percent of the total newly registered foreign investment.
The GSO saidfrom the year’s beginning to July 20, about 20.2 billion USD of FDI poured intoVietnam, down 13.4 percent year on year.
Of this sum,8.27 billion USD was channelled into 2,064 new projects, down 37.4 percent inthe capital but up 24.6 percent in the project number compared to the sameperiod last year.-VNA
