Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh has asked ministries and Quang Ninh, Khanh Hoa and Kien Giang provinces to submit plans to establish special administrative economic zones in these regions.

The plans have to be submitted before April 3 to accelerate the creation of the Law on Special Administrative and Economic Zones.

Binh said the plans should have specific policies and mechanisms that are divided into categories of land use, immigration, finance-banking, infrastructure development sectors.

The provinces should have proposals on policies to help develop their strengths, prevent competition with each other and be attractive to regional and international investors.

On December 12, 2016, the Government promulgated Resolution No 103/NQ-CP, agreeing in principle to establish three special administrative economic zones in Van Don (in the northern province of Quang Ninh), Phu Quoc (in the southern province of Kien Giang), and north of Van Phong Bay (in the central province of Khanh Hoa).

The government asked the three provincial People’s Committees to collaborate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and other concerned ministries to draw up plans.

The MPI is working on the Law on Special Administrative and Economic Zones, with an aim to creating a new development model with breakthrough policies and mechanisms to improve investment environment while increasing competitiveness for attracting investments.

The ministry said the building of special administrative and economic zones had become urgent, necessary work as over the past 25 years the models of industrial zone, processing zone, economic zone and hi-tech park had not been sufficiently flexible, despite their contributions towards socio-economic growth.

Also, the policies and mechanisms in the current models are not attractive enough for foreign investors. The current models face shortcomings related to administrative procedures and poor human resources.

Since 1942, many countries have developed successful models of special economic zones, special administrative zones, freedom cities and intelligent, industrial and hi-tech cities with more open policies.

Building of special administrative and economic zones in Viet Nam will have positive effects on neighbouring areas too, the ministry said.

Quang Ninh Province is seeking capital for 43 investment projects across several sectors for the 2016-20 period. It has 121 registered foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with a total investment capital of US$5.9 billion, as per the MPI’s Foreign Investment Agency.

The Van Phong Economic Zone was established in 2006 and is spread across 150,000 hectares. This includes 80,000 hectares of sea and 70,000 hectares of land, which are under the supervision of Van Ninh District and Ninh Hoa Commune. A multi-sectoral economic zone, it has a designed focus on container and petroleum transit services, oil refining, and petrochemistry. So far it has attracted 145 investment projects with a total registered capital of $1.47 billion; 79 projects with an implemented capital of $600 million are operational. — VNS