The central province of Nghe An is expanding external economic relations
in a bid to make full use of all resources for fast and sustainable
economic development.
On one hand, the province continues to
reinforce ties with its traditional partners in Laos, RoK, France and
Russia. Nghe An has long maintained good relations with Xiangkhouang,
Bolikhamsay, Khammounne, Vientiane and Savannakhet provinces of Laos,
Gyeonggi in the Republic of Korea (RoK), Cotes d’Armor province and
Tours city in France, and Ulyanovsk in Russia.
On the other
hand, Nghe An is seeking out new partners for trade, investment, and
culture exchange, particularly localities in Japan, Australia, Indian,
EU countries, Canada and the US, through the assistance of Vietnamese
representative agencies abroad and foreign representative agencies in
Vietnam.
At the same time, the province devotes its resources
to develop local key economic zones, including the Southeast economic
zone, and the coastal areas, while making endeavours to access loans
from the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
Asian Development Bank (ADB).
In August alone, Nghe An has sent
delegations to Laos, Thailand and Japan to promote investment, and also
received hundreds of delegations of these countries who came to study
business and investment opportunities.
By the end of 2013, the
province was home to 39 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with
combined pledged capital of 1.49 billion USD.
However,
several problems are hindering the northern central province’s efforts
to promote international economic integration, particularly the low
competitiveness of local enterprises and poor skills of external affairs
officials.-VNA