Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)LongAn (VNA) – Although Long An province has taken the lead in foreigndirect investment (FDI) attraction in the Mekong Delta, it is still usingdifferent measures to improve its competitiveness and investment climate so asto become a modern and sustainable industrialised province by 2020.
Nearly 800 FDI projects worth almost 6 billionUSD are registered in Long An. About 500, or 62.5 percent, of the projects areoperational with about 3 billion USD already disbursed.
They concentrate in industrial parks andclusters in key economic districts such as Duc Hoa, Ben Luc, Can Duoc and CanGiuoc, and Tan An city.
The UK, China’s Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, theRepublic of Korea, and the US provide the most funds of the 37 countries andterritories that invest in the province.
FDI projects are said to have been making abreakthrough in local industrialisation and modernisation, promoting economicrestructuring, job creation, and social issues settlement.
From now to 2020, Long An will give top priorityto FDI projects in urban residential area construction, transport andindustrial infrastructure, hi-tech agriculture, and support industry, accordingto provincial authorities.
Chairman of the provincial People’s CommitteeTran Van Can said more effective solutions are being used to create a morefavourable investment environment.
The administration will strictly deal withsluggish projects by cancelling them, resizing the project area to suitinvestors’ actual capacity, or extending the deadline for projectimplementation.
It will also restrict permission for projectsthat may cause serious environmental pollution, reclaim rice farming land, ordo not match local planning, Can said.
Long An, 15th in the Provincial CompetitivenessIndex rankings last year, will step up administrative reforms and put itspublic administrative centre into use soon to save time and cost for people,businesses, as well as civil servants, the People’s Committee said.
They are going to develop vocational trainingestablishments to improve the local workforce’s capacity, thus meetingenterprises’ employment demand.
About 5,000ha of land will be ready soon toaccommodate investment projects through 2020. Areas in the districts of DongThap Muoi, Can Duoc and Can Giuoc will be zoned for hi-tech agriculturalactivities, according to the provincial Department of Natural Resources andEnvironment.-VNA
VNA
