Thanh Hoa province, which boasts the Nghi Son Oil Refinery and Petrochemical Complex Project, will organise a trade promotion conference on October 23-24 to introduce its socio-economic development strategy to 2020 with a vision towards 2030 as well as its incentives for foreign investors. Report by the Vietnam Economic News.

The Nghi Son Economic Zone (EZ) in Thanh Hoa province is expected to make more breakthroughs in investment attraction in the coming time thanks to its potential and the upcoming record breaking 9 billion USD Nghi Son Oil Refinery and Petrochemical Complex Project.

To attract a large amount of capital into the EZ, on October 23-24 Thanh Hoa provincial People's Committee and the Ministry of Planning and Investment will co-organise a forum on promoting investment in Nghi Son EZ and the surrounding areas.

The Nghi Son EZ is located in the south of Thanh Hoa province, about 200km south of Hanoi. This is also a link between Vietnam’s northern, central and southern regions with southern Laos and northeastern Thailand.

The EZ is planned into many important sections on a total area of 18.611ha, including Nghi Son Port, oil refinery and petrochemical complex zone, Nghi Son Thermal Power Center, Industrial Zones and urban areas. Of those, the Nghi Son Port has potentials to become a deep water ports capable of receiving ships with a capacity of up to 100,000DWT.

Not only having very favorable and strategic position for investment attraction, Head of Nghi Son EZ Management Board Tran Hoa said the EZ is also one of Vietnam’s five key EZs prioritized by the government to build important infrastructure systems such as breakwaters along with traffic, water and telecommunication systems.

By now, the Nghi Son EZ has attracted 74 investment projects, including 66 domestic projects with total registered capital of 93 trillion VND and 8 foreign projects, totaling 12.1 billion USD.

Some projects will have a large effects on the provincial, regional and national socioeconomic development such as the Nghi Son Oil Refinery and Petrochemical Complex with a capacity of 10 million tonnes of crude oil per year and total investment capital of more than 9 billion USD; the Nghi Son 1 Thermal Power Plant project with a capacity of 600MW invested by the Electricity of Vietnam Group and total investment capital of 22 trillion VND; the Nghi Son 2 Thermal Power Plant project with a capacity of 1,200MW and total investment capital of 2.3 billion USD invested by the joint-venture Marubeni Group of Japan and Kepco Group of the Republic of Korea.

Vice Chairman of the Thanh Hoa provincial People's Committee Nguyen Dinh Xung said, investment attraction in the Nghi Son EZ has obtained recognizable results. However, the investments are only at an early stage and remained modest maybe because the investors have not been fully aware of preferential treatments, especially in terms of land and tax policies when undertaking investments in this EZ.

In terms of land policies, the investors’ land and water face hire costs will be exempted for 11-15 years since the operations of projects, depending on the fields and branches of the projects.

As for tax policies, when undertaking investments in the Nghi Son EZ, the investors will enjoy an Corporate Income Tax (CIT) rate of 10 percent applied for 15 years since the operations of projects. The CIT is exempted for the first four years and reduced to 50 percent of payable tax amount for nine subsequent years

Regarding high-tech, large scale and important projects to the development of various fields and branches or to the provincial, regional socioeconomic development, preferential tax rates could extend to a maximum of 30 years. Goods import taxes to make fixed assets and specialized transport means used in the projects are exempted. Import taxes are applied for five years since the operations of projects for production materials, accessories that Vietnam has not been capable to make or for Vietnamese products failing to meet the quality requirements.

Hoa said: “The success of investors at the Nghi Son EZ is also that of Thanh Hoa Province. Therefore, the Nghi Son EZ Management Board pledges to create the most favorable conditions for their operation in the zone.”.-VNA