Long An - Strong "brand" in attracting investment

In Long An, FDI enterprises have a good production environment and do their business more and more effectively

Strong “brand”

Long An has a quite favorable geographical location with industrial development infrastructure being planned and invested, so it is easy to attract businesses, especially to attract foreign investment. In the first 10 months of 2019, the province granted 109 new projects, FDI enterprises with a total newly granted capital of 320 million USD, an increase of 38 projects compared to the same period in 2018. Up to now, there are 1,009 FDI enterprises with a total registered capital of the province, registered capital of 6,166 million USD, of which 576 enterprises were put into operation with a total investment of 3,614 million USD. The sectors that attract the most FDI capital are garment, footwear, food processing and beverage processing. FDI projects are concentrated mainly in the key economic regions of the province such as Duc Hoa, Ben Luc, Can Duoc, Can Giuoc districts and Tan An city. Currently, there are about 38 countries and territories investing in the province, of which Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan and Singapore have the most projects.

Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee - Tran Van Can affirmed that FDI enterprises played a very important role in the socio-economic development of the province. This was clearly shown by the fact that FDI enterprises contributed significantly to the strategy of economic restructuring to the industry - construction and services, infrastructure development, budget revenue contribution, growth of export turnover, job creation, technology transfer, domestic production and service promotion, etc.

It is noteworthy that FDI enterprises have contributed a lot to the industrial production, export and import activities of the province in recent years, accounting for a higher contribution rate than domestic enterprises and markedly growing through the years. Currently, the province has nearly 900 enterprises involved in import and export activities, of which FDI enterprises account for quite large in number. Goods exported to more than 120 countries and territories, including rice, cashew nuts, seafood, leather shoes, garment, textiles, yarn, mechanics, steel, batteries, electronic products, computers, and so on. Through recognition, the import and export turnover of the province has grown quite well year by year. Specifically, the export turnover of the first 9 months of 2019 in the whole province reached 4.46 billion USD, up 16.6 percent over the same period and the import turnover reached 3.27 billion USD, up 7.5 percent over the same period in 2018.

Talking about the investment environment in Long An, Deputy General Director of Finance of Thang Long Biological Engineering Co., Ltd. (Duc Hoa district) - Uong Tu Hung shared that his company invested in Long An because he believed that this was the favorable environment. In particular, the provincial leaders are very interested in building an investment and business environment in the direction of openness, friendliness and efficiency for businesses through exchanges and dialogues. Since then, businesses assured production and business more and more effectively. Thang Long Biotechnology Engineering Co., Ltd. specializes in producing feed for shrimp and fish for domestic and foreign consumption. According to Mr. Uong Tu Hung, thanks to the favorable business environment in Long An, the business results in 2018 of the company increased 30 times compared to 2011. Accordingly, sales volume in 2018 reached 300,000 tons, about 300 million USD of turnover. It is expected that consumption will be about 400,000 tons in 2019, and revenue will reach 400 million USD.

Employees at Semitec Electronics Co., Ltd. (Tan Kim Industrial Park, Can Giuoc district)

Upcoming strategy

According to the Chairman of the Provincial Economic Zone Management Board - Truong Van Trieu, if the whole province currently has 576 FDI projects and enterprises in operation, there are 397 enterprises operating in the industrial parks in the province with total investment capital of 1.87 billion USD. In the first nine months of 2019, FDI enterprises' production and business activities in the industrial park had a turnover of over 1,248 million USD, up 3.63 percent as compared to the same period in 2018. These enterprises paid more than 37.9 million USD to the state budget. In particular, import and export turnover of FDI enterprises in industrial parks has reached impressive figures. Accordingly, FDI enterprises had an export turnover of 950 million USD, up 20.6 percent over the same period in 2018 and contributed over 89 percent to the total export turnover of both FDI and DDI sectors. The import turnover of FDI enterprises in industrial parks reached 685 million USD, up 0.63 percent over the same period in 2018 and contributed 83.67 percent to the total import turnover of both FDI and DDI sectors.

According to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee - Tran Van Can, Long An also revealed certain limitations although FDI attraction has achieved many important results. Most FDI projects are small scale, their added value is not high. In addition, FDI projects have focused on industries using many labors such as textiles, footwear, etc. Few projects have invested in supporting manufacturing and high-tech industries, few large scale corporations and famous brands invest in production and business in the province.

In addition, FDI enterprises in operation in Long An are still low compared to enterprises with investment certificates, currently, only 576 enterprises out of 1,000 FDI enterprises come into operation with a total investment of 3,614 million USD, with the total registered capital of 6,166 million USD. The phenomenon of "tax evasion", transfer price still takes place in many businesses, causing revenue loss to the state budget. According to the Director of the Provincial Tax Department - Cao Van Tao, this situation is gradually changing positively from the beginning of 2019 to the present. Specifically, in the first 10 months of 2019, the revenue from FDI enterprises was quite high with a revenue of 1,760 billion VND, reaching 95 percent of the yearly estimate and equal to 139.6 percent compared to the same period in 2018. Meanwhile, in previous years, the revenue from this field is very low, not reaching the set plan. To achieve this result, the tax industry has increased support for taxpayers, helping taxpayers and businesses to understand tax policies and laws and change their perceptions. Thereby, they change positively in voluntarily declaring tax payment fully and promptly according to the actual production and business activities of enterprises. There are some enterprises that used to make frequent losses and now declare profits and pay taxes to the state budget.

Mr. Tran Van Can added that, in the coming time, Long An will continue to promote its geographical position to attract investment, especially FDI enterprises. Accordingly, the province is focusing on investing to complete infrastructure driving axes, especially transport infrastructure in key economic regions serving industrial development, including inner provincial axes, inter-provincial and inter-regional axes, especially the transport axes connecting to Ho Chi Minh city. The authority of Long An province continues its best efforts for an open investment environment, in order to make Long An an attractive investment destination, a strong brand in attracting investment in Vietnam./.

By Mai Huong – Translated by Duc Tam

Source: http://baolongan.vn/long-an-thuong-hieu-manh-trong-thu-hut-dau-tu-a86329.html