Vice Chairman of the Hanoi’s Management Board of industrial parks (IPs) and export processing zones (EPZs) Nguyen Thai Long said with the advantages of capital and technology, FDI enterprises in Hanoi have made major contributions to the city’s economic development, the Vietnam Economic News reported.

To improve the efficiency of import- export activities of foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises in Hanoi’s industrial parks and export processing zones, the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade recently coordinated with the municipal management board of IPs and EPZs to organise a conference on removing obstacles and difficulties to boost business activities.

According to the Hanoi’s management board of IPs and EPZs, there are about 300 FDI enterprises operating in IPs and EPZs. In 2013, these enterprises posted total export revenue of 2.8 billion USD, accounting for 58 percent of total export revenue of the entire FDI enterprises in Hanoi while the import revenues reached nearly 2.4 billion USD, accounting for over 50 percent. The FDI enterprise block was also the only sector in the capital that recorded a trade surplus in 2013.

However, these companies have recently faced difficulties due to the economic slowdown with increasingly high raw material prices. In addition, they also had to confront many barriers regarding administrative procedures in their export and import activities.

At the conference, many companies such as Tajima Steel Vietnam Co., Ltd., Panasonic Vietnam Company and TOA Vietnam Co., Ltd reflected that businesses were still confused in meeting customs procedures as they have not been fully aware of all the administrative procedures and kept up with updates of the information technology system of Hanoi Customs.

In addition, premise rentals in Hanoi IPs and EPZs are much higher compared to adjacent localities. Nguyen Thai Long said: “If the rental of IPs and EPZs in Bac Ninh only costs about 50 USD/sq.m for a period of 50 years, those costs in Hanoi range from 150-200 USD/sq.m, which make IPs and EPZs in the city less attractive to investors.”

At the conference, representatives from the Import-Export Department, the Hanoi Customs and Taxation Department listened and answered many queries relating to import export procedures of enterprises.

In the long term, to improve the efficiency of import export activities of FDI enterprises in Hanoi IPs and EPZs, the Hanoi’s management board of IPs and EPZs will open more training classes to train highly skilled technicians to meet the human resources demand of FDI enterprises.

Specifically, the management board will boost the implementation of the Governmental Decree 164/ND-CP dated November 12, 2013, which supplemented Decree 29/2008/ND-CP dated March 14, 2009, providing regulations on IPs, EPZs and economic zones. Accordingly, the management board will do its state management jobs for goods subjected to conditional business and manage the grant of certificates of origin for goods produced in IPs as directed and authorized by relevant ministries.

As for land rentals, the management board, the Hanoi’s management board of IPs and EPZs has requested Hanoi People's committee to reduce land rentals for enterprises. The request will be considered and settled in the coming time.-VNA