Hanoi is making great strides to attract environmentally-friendly
foreign direct investment projects, the Vietnam Investment Review (VIR)
reported.
In early August 2014, Hanoi issued a new
post-investment interest support programme. Throughout this year, the
city plans to offer a 0.2 percent per month loan interest to medium and
long-term loans of at least one year for businesses based in Hanoi who
take loans for new investment projects, expand project scope or invest
in equipment and technology innovations.
The move aims to help
city-based businesses to remove difficulties in production and training
amid the slow economic recovery, said Director of the Hanoi Municipal
Authority for Planning and Investment Ngo Van Quy.
“We are
scaling up efforts to attract investment from domestic and external
sources,” Quy told the VIR, adding that thanks to these efforts during
2008-2013 Hanoi had lured around 1,141 trillion VND (54.3 billion USD)
in the total investment development capital to satisfy the city’s
development needs.
Hanoi currently stands third in terms of
wooing FDI. By end of June, the city was home to 2,806 on-going foreign
direct investment (FDI) projects worth 21.1 billion USD in the total
committed investment capital. Growing visibility of global players like
Japan’s Panasonic and Canon in its industrial parks (IPs) have made a
significant contribution to the local industrial production and export
development.
As of June, foreign invested enterprises (FIEs)
posted revenues of about 4.86 billion USD, up 12.3 percent on-year. FIEs
also contributed more than 2.6 billion USD, representing 48.6 percent
of the city’s total export value.
However, city officials admit that FDI inflows could be higher.
“We
may expect big turnabout in the coming period in the wake of the city’s
reformed investment promotion mechanism. Detailed steps are embedded in
the city’s investment promotion programme for 2014-2015 with an
orientation to 2020,” Quy was quoted as saying.
The programme,
approved by the city’s management authorities in June, seeks to promote
investment on a selective basis, targeting strategic partners, key
foreign markets as well as hi-tech fields with high added value.
The
Hanoi Municipal Authority for Planning and Investment’s statistics show
that from 2011 to 2020, Hanoi needs to attract 3,900-4,100 trillion VND
(180-190 billion USD) for an ambitious list of socio-economic
development tasks.
Some 50-55 billion USD has been earmarked for
the 2012-2015 period alone and the city wishes to woo up to 20 percent
of this sum from FDI.
In parallel to hosting investment
promotion programmes at home and abroad, Hanoi will also pay due heed to
spurring on-site investment through increasing support to projects
which were granted investment certificates and hosting frequent
dialogues with investors to settle their problems in a timely manner.
“A
new investment wave will arise if every stakeholder is committed and we
effectively handle this ambitious investment promotion programme,” Quy
told the VIR.-VNA