The Central Highlands Province of Dak Nong should streamline administrative procedures to create the most favourable conditions for investors, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said.

The PM delivered the remarks during an investment promotion conference held in the province on Monday. The event – the biggest of its kind so far – witnessed the participation of nearly 1,000 delegates and business people at home and abroad.

In order to ensure the success of investors, which should be considered the success of Dak Nong, the PM urged the locality to have professional staff which could assist investors in dealing with its administrative procedures. That could contribute to improving its investment climate. Such improvement could then compensate for its other disadvantages such as inadequate infrastructure, the PM said.

In his speech at the event, the PM also advised Dak Nong to promote trade development.

According to PM Phuc, the province should focus on products overseas markets need rather than those it could supply. Fostering the application of technology to expand its production capacity and improve the quality of its products and surveying customers’ demand should also be included, he noted.

During the conference, representatives from the FLC Group praised the strong commitments of local authorities in creating a transparent investment climate with many investment incentives, revealing the group’s desire to develop tourism projects here.

Other firms such as T&T and Sam Agritech expressed their interest in the province’s untapped agriculture sector thanks to the province’s large cultivated area, totalling about 588,000ha.

At the conference, the provincial People’s Committee granted investment licences to four projects worth of VND2.7 trillion ($116 million). The committee also signed deals worth total registered capital of more than VND48 trillion ($2.06 billion).

Dak Nong is a gateway to the south of the Central Highlands. It shares a borderline of 130km with Cambodia and two border gates. The province has large areas of fertile land and mild climate suitable for agriculture, especially industrial crops and fruit trees. It is rich in mineral resources, particularly bauxite. It also has great potential for tourism development thanks to a beautiful landscape and the rich culture of local ethnic communities.

Despite these advantages and potentials, the province’s results in investment attraction remained modest, local authorities said.

Statistics from the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) revealed that the province lured only one foreign-invested project, worth US$48 million, in 2018. The latest addition has brought its total number of foreign-invested projects up to 12, capitalised at $145 million.

Currently, the province ranks 53rd among 64 localities in terms of foreign direct investment attraction, FIA’s data showed.

In order to attract more investment, local authorities have put forth a number of specific policies and mechanisms to draw investors, including the approval of a resolution in August 2018 to encourage and attract investment in the province.

Besides accelerating administrative reform, the province has promoted the application of information technology and improved the business investment environment.

The province has put into operation two industrial parks on a combined area of 328ha and it is making a planning scheme for Nhan Co 2 Industrial Park on over 800ha to facilitate investment in mining and aluminium processing projects.

Luu Van Trung, Director of the provincial Department of Planning and Investment, said the locality wanted to call for domestic and foreign economic groups to invest in the fields of hi-tech agriculture, mining, renewable energy, and tourism, in line with the province’s development direction for 2015-20.

The 11th Congress of the province’s Party organisation for the 2015-20 tenure defined three breakthroughs for the local economy, which were mining-energy, processing-hi-tech agriculture, and tourism-service, Trung said. — VNS