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Incentives for investment in Lang Son province
A two pronged strategy offering investment incentives and fast-track procedures was outlined on May 20 at an investment promotion conference in northern border Lang Son province.
Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong said the move was an opportunity to make full use of the province’s untapped potential and help the local people escape poverty.
Duong Thoi Giang, the Deputy Chairman of the Lang Son People’s Committee, said in addition to the investment incentives applied nationwide, investors interested in pouring money into the impoverished province’s economic zones would enjoy a land lease tax as low as 1 percent of the normal rate.
Giang said that investors would enjoy simplified business procedures as the province had instigated single-clearance at many of its public offices. The Department of Planning and Investment also began offering investors on-line registration and easier access to information.
Keun-Hyung Park , Senior Deputy Director of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), on May 20 said the lack of access to information and increasingly high costs for operations were major difficulties facing foreign investors in Vietnam .
“Other difficulties include confusing and complicated administrative procedures and a lack of skilled workers,” he said.
Lang Son, 154 km northeast of Hanoi , has a populations of 750,000 and is home to two international border gates and seven bustling border markets.
But despite its location, which is advantageous for cross-border trade, the province has never been a favourite investment destination, partly because 80 percent of its land is mountainous, which makes developing infrastructure difficult.
Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Truong Van Doan, said foreign investment in Lang Son has remained low, with some 30 projects worth 86 million USD.
“This is a very limited figure when put into the context that Vietnam attracted a record 64 billion USD in foreign investment in 2008, triple that of 2007,” Doan said.
A 1.4 billion USD project to build a highway linking Hanoi with Lang Son’s Huu Nghi international border gate will soon be implemented and a railway connecting Lang Son and three other cities in Vietnam with China ’s Nanning is now in the pipeline. Both projects would make Lang Son more attractive to investors, said the deputy minister.
Also at the May 20 conference, Lang Son authorities handed over investment certificates to five local investors and entered into Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with four domestic businesses.
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