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Investors sing Binh Duong's praises
The Japanese business community plans to pour more investment into Binh Duong Province, according to speakers at trade and investment conference held in Binh Duong New City on Friday.
The conference, organised by the province's People's Committee and Japanese General Consulate in HCM City was attended by representatives from 150 Japanese businesses operating in the province, as well as officials from the province and neighbouring areas.
Nguyen Hoang Son, Head of the People's Committee, said over the past year the province was one of the country's leaders in attracting foreign direct investment.
Despite the impact of economic recession in 2009, the GDP of the province reached 10.3 per cent, double the country's figure, according to Huynh Van Trai, director of the province's Department of Planning and Investment.
"Binh Duong's GDP growth rate has always passed 10 per cent. This destination is a top choice of investors," he said. "We would like all participants here to become business partners based on a long-term and sustainable relationship."
Nakanishi Hirota, senior advisor for the Japan External Trade Organisation, said that Binh Duong as well as the country must have more trained workers and staff.
If the task was not done soon, the country would not be able to compete with regional countries in attracting FDI, he added.
The province's average GDP growth rate in recent years has been 15 per cent year-on-year and average industrial production value 25 per cent.
For the first three months of the year, Binh Duong Province granted licences to 21 new projects.
The province welcomes environmentally friendly projects in high-tech industries such as finance, banking, human resources training and telecommunications.
There are 150 Japanese projects in the province, with total investment of US$1.4 billion.
Japan loaned Viet Nam 145.6 billion yen ($1.53 billion) in Official Development Assistance last year, the highest amount of any country, according to Ikuo Mizuki, Japanese Consul General in HCM City.
There are 900 Japanese investors in Viet Nam; 360,000 Japanese tourists visited Viet Nam last year.
Binh Duong Province has 28 industrial parks on 9,000 ha. It has attracted 1,922 FDI projects with total capital of more than $13 billion, of which 60 per cent has been deployed.
The area has 9,012 domestic projects with total registered capital of $3.3 billion.
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