Nghe An puts itself on the map in spectacular style
Date update: 3/30/2008

Nghe An province is proving to be a central attraction for businesses. Located in the heart of northern-central Vietnam on the north-south and east-west axes, the province is central Laos and north-eastern Thailand’s gateway to the East Sea via the Cua Lo Port.

The province is now at the forefront of investor attention with a series of preferential policies which support business investment.
In recent years a swathe of domestic and foreign companies have registered and set up shop in the province. From 2001 to now, 24 foreign invested projects with total registered capital of $220.75 million have got underway in Nghe An.

Some 180 domestic projects with registered capital of $2.57 billion are also up and running.
The $90 million Nghe An Tate & Lyle sugar joint venture is an example of the larger projects that the province is now attracting.

FDI business leaping ahead to enjoy success
FDI businesses are also humming along, such as the Vietnam-Japan white limestone project, the Tuong Lai cigarette lighter plant and a project from Shell Bitumen.
A number of domestically- invested businesses are also nearing completion, such as the $158 million Khe Bo hydroelectric plant, Cua Lo golf course ($95 million, Bai Lu Resort ($48 million), a packaging factory ($43 million) and a Saigon Brewery and Beverage Corporation project ($99.5 million).
Keen on developing the economy sustainably, Nghe An is calling on businesses to invest in industrial production, construction, forestry and agriculture. Priority will be given to the development of industries with competitive advantages and stable markets, development of high technology, tourism and tourist products, construction of trading centres, recreational parks and investment in consultant, auditing, financial, banking and insurance services.

Firms encouraged to get into the zone
Under a plan to develop an economic zone between 2006-2010 and towards 2020, Nghe An is calling for investment in the Nam Cam Industrial Park.
Areas which are encouraged include steel rolling, metallurgy, motor vehicle assembly, chemicals, fertiliser, wood processing, mineral processing and leather shoe manufacturing.
The 117-hectare Bac Vinh Industrial Park for textiles, garments and leather shoes for export, electronics, handicraft and agri-product processing still has 4.8ha available.

With more than 80ha available in the Hoang Mai Industrial Park investment is encouraged in the fields of mechanical engineering assembly, electricity and electronics, forest product processing, building materials, canned foods and mineral processing.

The Phu Quy Industrial Park has 180ha ready to go for agri-products, forestry products, mineral processing, mechanical repairs, animal feed processing and the production of building materials and packaging.
Nguyen Van Chat, director of Nghe An provincial Department of Planning and Investment, said: “Implementing preferential and support policies for investment promulgated by the provincial government is what we are doing. We will continue speeding up administrative reforms and procedures as well as promoting the one-stop service between related offices and agencies, with the aim of creating a favourable environment for investment and business.”

Working hard to safeguard precious investments
Nghe An is implementing policies to encourage investment in the Southeast Economic Zone’s infrastructure of the duty-free zone, industrial parks, urban areas, seaports, maritime transport, forwarding, cargo handling, warehousing, import and export, financial and banking services, insurance, trade promotion, health, education and housing.

Businesses in the Southeast Economic Zone will enjoy preferential treatment applicable to localities under difficult socio-economic conditions and other economic zones under the Law on Investment, the Law on Corporate Income Tax and other legal regulations.
They also enjoy a 10 per cent corporate income tax rate for 15 years, starting from the date the projects come into operation.

They are exempt from corporate income tax for four years, starting from the date they earn taxable income to go with a 50 per cent tax reduction for nine subsequent years.
In addition to tax incentives, domestic investors in the Southeast Economic Zone will enjoy preferential credits in accordance with government regulations on development investment.

The Nghe An People’s Committee will also apply the single-price policy to goods and services to land rent for organisations and individuals, regardless of whether they are foreign or domestic, which do business in the Southeast Economic Zone.

Phan Dinh Trac, chairman of the Nghe An provincial People’s Committee, said investors would get the red carpet treatment and the province is applying the on-the-spot one-door mechanism in business registration.
The committee is also studying the implementation of the one-door mechanism in investment aiming to shorten the time it takes for registration and issuing investment certificates. The promulgation of many open and transparent policies and mechanisms and also the speeding up of administrative reforms regarding the attraction and management of investment will help create favourable conditions for domestic and foreign investors.

Author: Quoc Tri   

Source: Vietnam Investment

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