With FDI dwindling this year, HCM City is mulling ways to attract investors. (Photo haiquanonline.com.vn)HCMCity (VNS/VNA) – HCM City is enacting numerous solutions tofacilitate FDI into the city by focusing on infrastructure and administrativeprocedures, as the fund poured into it has been dwindling this year.
The country’s biggest economichub received 3.25 billion USD worth of FDI in the first nine months of theyear, a 28 percent decrease year-on-year, according to the city's StatisticsOffice.
There were 719 new projectsworth 407.4 million USD, 23.6 percent and 57.1 percent down.
Nguyen Anh Thi, head ofmanagement of District 9’s Saigon Hi-tech Park, said the park has beendiscussing with 15 potential foreign investors since the beginning of thisyear, but only issued a permit for one project worth 3 million USD.
The number of projects withinvestment of above 100 million USD is reducing while investors areincreasingly moving away from HCM City and to other provinces.
Many investors have complainedthat traffic infrastructure and administrative procedures have not improvedmuch.
In face of thesituation, the city is speeding up work on infrastructure projects such asthe metro line No 1 and Thu Thiem Bridge No 2.
It is also focusingon streamlining procedures involved in licensing permit, as well asfurther utilising information technology to reduce time spent on theprocedures, and expanding online public services.
The city is also pushing up theconstruction of more industrial parks. It has recently proposedsetting up of a new 280 hectares hi-tech industrial park in Binh ChanhDistrict.
Meanwhile,industrial production is showing signs of recovery in HCM City post-COVID,benefiting from support policies.
Its Index of IndustrialProduction was 9.6 percent up in September, and 2.2 percent higheryear-on-year, according to the Department of Industry and Trade.
The policies include defermentof tax and land rent payment, loans on easy terms from banks and consultancy.
Several industries have seenproduction rise since last month, food processing by 10.2 percent, chemicals by33.4 percent, and rubber and plastic by 2.8 percent./.
