Ba Ria-Vung Tau improves investment environment to attract FDI

Phu My 3 Specialised Industrial Park in Phu My town. Photo: VNA

Ba Ria –Vung Tau (VNA) – Located in the Southeast region, Ba Ria – Vung Tau province is working to full tap its natural advantages and defining clear priorities to attract investment, contributing to turning the southeast into a dynamic region with highest growth rate and the biggest growth driver of the country.

* Outstanding advantages

A geographical location near the sea with a deep-sea port and developed technical and transport infrastructure, especially a favourable transport network, has brought Ba Ria-Vung Tau many competitive advantages, attracting many investors. 

The Southeast region is accessible by all five transport means of land, railway, inland waterway, maritime and aviation.

According to Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang, the development of transport infrastructure in the region has received due attention in commensurate with its potential and advantages. In the road development masterplan for 2021-2030 with a vision to 2050, which has been approved by the Prime Minister, attention is paid to the network of roads (expressways and national roads) connecting the southeast with Ho Chi Minh City, the Long Thanh International Airport, international border gates and the Cai Mep – Thi Vai international port. At the same time, the Transport Ministry has completed and submitted to the PM for approval four out of five national masterplans in the sector, enabling the Southeast region and regional provinces to integrate transport planning into their own development masterplans, thus helping build a complete and integrated transport network for the region.

Chau Duc Industrial Park in Chau Duc district. Photo: VNA

Also under the road development masterplan, expressways running from North to South will be build in the eastern and western parts of the Southeast region, along with expressways connecting Ho Chi Minh City with key gateways, transport hubs and beltways, and 20 national roads with a combined length of 1,743 km. This road network will facilitate both passenger and cargo transport across the region, investment attraction and socio-economic development.    

Luong Anh Tuan, deputy director of the provincial Department of Transport, said the province will step by step invest in building intra-region roads, such as a road leading to the Long Son oil and gas industrial park, roads in the Cai Mep – Thi Vai port cluster, Road 991B, and the Phuoc Hoa – Cai Mep road, towards completing the coastal economic corridor, facilitating the development of local IPs, seaports, inland ports and logistics centres. 

Aside from transport infrastructure, Ba Ria – Vung Tau has a big advantage with the Cai Mep – Thi Vai port cluster. Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Tho said according to the national seaport development master plan for 2021-2030 with a vision to 2050, seaports in Ba Ria – Vung Tau are in Group 4 and classified as special seaports. Cai Mep – Thi Vai is among 23 ports in the world capable of accommodating ships of up to 214,000 tonnes. Among international transshipment ports, it has the highest frequency of direct routes to Europe and the US, and also one of the 50 seaports with the highest container throughput in the world.

Given its outstanding advantages, Ba Ria - Vung Tau attracted about 2.07 billion USD worth of domestic and foreign investment in 2022, while 1,900 new enterprises were established and 596 others resumed operation. At a conference to launch an action plan to implement the Politburo’s Resolution 24-NQ/TW at the end of November this year, Ba Ria – Vung Tau leaders presented investment licences and investment cooperation minutes to 10 projects in the province with total investment capital topping 8 billion USD. The projects include one on phase two of the southern petrochemical complex, another on producing CLT wood for construction, one on expanding the Marubeni paper plant, a project on manufacturing HD displays, the Fivestar Odyssey condotel project, and those on a port storage facility, a Polypropylene (PP) factory and an underground LPG storage facility. 

* Creating favourable investment environment

Besides its advantages, Ba Ria – Vung Tau authorities also commit themselves to continuing to create a favourable environment for investment with transparent investment attraction policies based on local economic pillars.  

According to Chairman Tho, in the period from 2021-2025, the province has set the goal of developing industry, seaport, tourism and hi-tech agriculture. The province pursues a consistent policy on selective investment attraction, giving priority to projects of large scale, using modern and environmentally-friendly technology and producing high added value instead of labour intensive ones. At the same time, the province aims to develop seaport and port logistics services into a key industry to support other industries, trade and services.

A leader of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province signs memoranda of understanding on investment with investors. (Photo: Ngoc Son)

To realise the goal, the provincial People’s Committee is resolved to enhance its leadership capacity and create the best possible environment for the development of enterprises and investors. The province is intensifying administrative reform, and is the first locality in the country to integrate digital signatures on mobile platform into the public service portal, facilitating transactions of citizens and enterprises. 

The investment-business environment in Ba Ria – Vung Tau has always been highly rated by enterprises. For many consecutive years, the province has been in the top groups in the rankings of Provincial governance and public administration (PAPI) index, Public administration reform (PAR) index, provincial competitiveness index (PCI), readiness for Information and Communications Technology (ICT index) and the Satisfaction Index of Public Administration Services./.

VNA