FDI capital flows into southern key economic region

Increase in quantity, preeminence in quality

In mid-May 2022, Danish Pandora Group, the world’s largest jewellery brand, signed a cooperation agreement with the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) Joint Venture Company to build a new jewellery manufacturing facility in Vietnam. Pandora committed to investing 100 million USD to build a jewellery manufacturing facility at VSIP 3 in Binh Duong province in early 2023 which is scheduled to go into production in late 2024.

Chief Supply Officer at Pandora JeerasagePuranasamriddhi said the group has researched many places around the world before deciding to choose Vietnam and specifically Binh Duong as its next production base. In Vietnam, Pandora can access a large number of skilled craftsmen to expand Pandora’s manufacturing capabilities.

According to Binh Duong Provincial People's Committee, FDI capital invested in the province reached 2.35 billionUSD in the first four months of 2022, raising the accumulated registered capital to 39.4 billion USD by investors from 65 countries and territories.

From the beginning of this year to April 20, the total FDI capital in Ho Chi Minh City reached 1.28 billion USD, up 12.2% over the same period in 2021. The number of valid projects operating in the city is 10,568 projects with atotal registered capital of 53.62 billion USD.

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Anh Thi, head of the Management Board of Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Industrial Park (SHTP), the SHTP Management Board granted an investment certificate to NTT Telecommunications Group of Japan to implement a project at SHTP with a total capital of 56 million USD. This is the world’s leading high-tech project. When the project is implemented, it will form a data centre with the highest standards in Vietnam, which is a premise to attract big investors such as Google and Amazon. SHTP has so far had 165 valid projects with total investment capital of about 8.6 billion USD.

In the first four months of 2022, Long An province attracted 341 million USD from 19 new investment projects and 23 projects expanding capital. The province currently has 1,141 FDI projects with a total capital of more than 9.73 billion USD. Head of the Management Board of Long An Economic Zone Nguyen Thanh Thanhsaid that the largest project within the province in the first quarter of 2022 is the Coca-Cola beverage factory project, with a total capital of over 136 million USD in Phu An Thanh Industrial Park, Ben Luc District.

Dong Nai province also reported over 210 million USD of FDI in the first four months of the year. The province also signed an investment cooperation memorandum with Aeonmall Vietnam Co., Ltd in early May. This Japanese enterprise will invest in a commercial centre in Dong Naiwith a total capital of 268 million USD.

Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Dong Naiprovince Nguyen Thi Hoang said that with the advantage of geographical location and abundant human resources, especially when highway projects and Long Thanh international airport are completed, the province will attract FDI projects with higher technology content and high connectivity both domestically and internationally.

Utilising FDI capital in a sustainable manner

As the province attracted the largest FDI capital over the first four months of 2022, Vice Chairman of Binh Duong Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van Danh said that the province will continue to organise many online investment promotion conferences with other countries and expand international cooperation relationships as FDI is very important for the provincial industrial development.

In addition, the province will concentrate its investment on perfecting traffic infrastructure and industrial park infrastructure, human resource training, improving administrative procedures, building social housing for workers, and providing adequate labour resources for enterprises investing in the province, Danh noted.

According to the Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Phan Van Mai, the city attaches great importance to the foreign investor community thanks totheir contributions to manufacturing, social activities, and the city’s development. The city will maintain regular meetings with businesses to seek development cooperation opportunities and better respond to business opinions, he added.

Chairman of Binh Phuoc Provincial People’s Committee Tran Tue Hien said, with good infrastructure, good human resources, good policies, and good public services, BinhPhuoc province always welcomes investors to invest in the province. The province continues to have preferential policies for enterprises to invest in 80 projects worth over 2 billion USD over the 2021-2025 period in the areas ofprocessing and manufacturing industries, supporting industries, hi-tech agriculture, and logistics services.

In Dong Nai province, in addition to 31 industrial zones, the Provincial People’s Committee proposed and was approved by the Prime Minister the building of five more industrial zones with a total area of ​​over 7,100ha to attract more foreign investment. Dong Nai does not wish to attract investment at just any cost, so Secretary of the Dong Nai Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Hong Linh has asked for selective investment attraction and the refusal of projects with out-of-date technologies and at risk of causing environmental pollution or labour-intensive projects.