Located in the southern key economic region, Binh Phuoc has a strategic and advantageous position for investment in industrial production. Therefore, developing Binh Phuoc into a modern industrial center, attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI) is a strategic goal of the provincial leaders in recent years.
In the past, investors came to Binh Phuoc mainly to invest in labour-intensive industries like leather, footwear, textile – dyeing, etc., to take advantage of cheap labour cost, but now they are coming for a more diversified investment portfolio and focusing on high-tech industries.
These are the reasons making Binh Phuoc a spot light for attracting investment, especially foreign investment.
1. Binh Phuoc’s advantages in attracting investment:
The first and foremost advantage of Binh Phuoc is its geographical location: Binh Phuoc is the largest province among the 19 provinces in the Southeast region of Viet Nam. It has 13 industrial parks with a total area of 4.686 ha. The infrastructure systems in 8 out of the 13 industrial parks have been fully developed.
To maximize the advantages of Binh Phuoc's location and the land areas allocated for the development of industrial parks, key transport infrastructure projects have been planned and gradually invested by the Provincial People's Committee. Typical examples of these key projects include Ho Chi Minh City - Chon Thanh - Dak Nong expressway with a total investment of about 24,275 billion VND, the Dong Phu - Binh Duong expressway with total investment capital of 2,253 billion VND, Di An - Hoa Lu railway project with total investment capital of 948.6 million USD, National Highway 14C connecting Dak Nong with Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, and Long An with a total proposed upgrade cost of 280 billion VND.
Notably, Binh Phuoc is now in its period of "golden population" structure, with the number of working people accounting for more than 60% of the population. This is a great opportunity for Binh Phuoc to attract and recruit skilled workers in the 4th industrial revolution (IR4).
Binh Phuoc is ranked the first in the country in terms of connecting online public services with the National Public Service Portal. Binh Phuoc is among the leading provinces in online payment of land-related financial obligations and electronic certification of documents. 100% of enterprises and household businesses in the province have used e-invoices. This is a very meaningful for the administrative reform and the promotion of the development of the digital economy and helps save costs for businesses and the society.
Currently, Binh Phuoc has 13 industrial zones (IZs) with a total area of over 6,000 ha, occupancy rate reached 53.5%, among which Becamex - Binh Phuoc Industrial Zone has an area of 2,450 ha, and Minh Hung - Sikiko Industrial Zone has an area of 655 ha. These are 2 new industrial zones with large-scale, modern, and well-invested infrastructure, and convenient transportation.
In the period 2021-2030, the province will expand 3 industrial zones with a total area of 2,500 ha including North Dong Phu Industrial Park with a total area of 900 ha, South Dong Phu Industrial Park with a total area of 600 ha, Minh Hung Industrial Park - Sikiko with a total area of 1,000 ha and plan to build 5 new industrial zones with a total area of 6,800 ha of which Dong Phu Industrial Zone has a total area of 3,300 ha. In addition, the province has Hoa Lu border gate economic zone with an area of 28,000 ha
2. Achievements:
According to Binh Phuoc Provincial People's Committee, in 2021, despite the severe impact by the COVID-19 pandemic, the attracted FDI was tripled the figure of 2020. Specifically, in 2021, the province attracted 70 foreign investment projects (FDI) with a capital of 600 million USD, doubled in the number of projects and tripled in registered capital compared to the 2020 figures. By the end of 2021, there were 346 FDI projects operated in the province with a total registered capital of more than 3.5 billion USD. In 2021, the local government approved 100 projects with a total registered domestic investment capital of more than 10,000 billion VND.
In the first half of 2022, the province has attracted 18 FDI projects with a total registered capital of 48 million USD. To the date, the province has attracted accumulatively 354 FDI projects with a total investment capital of 3 billion 369 million USD from many countries. There are 15 projects of Singaporean investors with a total investment capital of 286 million USD, accounting for 8.5% of the province's total FDI. The main fields that Singaporean investors invest in Binh Phuoc are animal husbandry and livestock and poultry processing industry; animal feed manufacturing industry; battery production, etc.
3. Binh Phuoc's FDI attraction policy
By offering great incentives and adopting many preferential policies, Binh Phuoc province has been making tremendous efforts to reform administrative procedures, improve the investment environment, and prepare conditions for a new wave of investment.
Currently, the province continues to adopt preferential policies to attract domestic and foreign businesses to invest in 80 projects planned for the period of 2021 - 2025 with an estimated capital of more than 2 billion USD.
In the near future, the province will focus attraction of projects investing on processing and manufacturing industries; supporting industries, hi-tech agriculture, and logistics services.
With the "4 good" approach including good infrastructure, good human resources, good policies, and good public services, Binh Phuoc commits accompanying and standing by businesses; listening to and joining them to solve difficulties and creating the most favorable conditions for their investment, production and business activities.
Ngo Mai Huong
Department of Information, Library and Trade Promotion - VIOIT