Over recent years, the northern mountainous province of Ha Giang has adopted policies to attract investment and they have initially brought practical effectiveness to the provincial sustainable economic development and poverty reduction process.

Chairman of the Ha Giang provincial People’s Committee Dam Van Bong spoke with the Vietnam Economic News about the issue.

*Can you tell us some results from the promotion and attraction of investment projects in Ha Giang province recently?

As a border province in the far north with natural area of 7,914.9 sq.km and a population of 760,000 people, including 19 ethnic minorities, Ha Giang remains a poor province and people continue to face much difficulty. However, thanks to the care and instructions from central agencies, the province has actively boosted many investment promotion and aid programs, helping to create an increasingly open investment environment that attracted domestic and foreign investors.

Since 2010, investment certificates were granted to 54 projects in Ha Giang with total registered capital of 4.107 trillion VND. In the 2011-2013 period alone, the province mobilised and called for aids for 29 projects from 18 international organisations and non-governmental organisations like Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB), Plan International, Caritas Switzerland and Oxfarm Quebec with a total committed capital of 7.366 million USD and attracted 307,698 USD in Foreign Direct Investment.

Investment attraction into industrial zones (IZs) and industrial complexes (ICs) has also achieved positive results. Seventeen enterprises have registered investment in Binh Vang IZ with total registered capital of 6.506 trillion VND. Meanwhile, 15 enterprises have also registered investment in Thanh Thuy Border Economic Zone with a total registered capital of 114.8 billion VND. These figures may seem modest in other localities but it really brought practical effectiveness to Ha Giang, suiting with the provincial sustainable development target and socio-economic orientation.

*What potentials does Ha Giang offer that are attractive to investors?

Ha Giang has nearly 376 thousand ha of agricultural land which is a sustainable natural resource for the development of industries like paper, wood processing and rattan and bamboo. The agricultural sector has also built up many concentrated production regions like tea, soybeans, orange, cardamom, cinnamon, herbal trees and cattle-breeding. It is also a good orientation to built large plants to process these agricultural products. The province also has large potentials in to develop trade through Thanh Thuy International Border Crossing, three smaller gates and many other potential paths.

In terms of minerals, Ha Giang has over 215 mines, many of which have over one million reserves with high mineral contents like antimony, iron, lead and zinc. These mines have been planned for exploitation but have only in the form of preliminary treatment and need intensive-processing projects to increase values of the minerals.

Ha Giang also has huge potential for tourism development, especially after UNESCO recognition of Dong Van Stone Plateau as a member of the global network of national geoparks in 2010. Many investors have come to Ha Giang to figure out and sign investment cooperation programs in tourism infrastructure.

*Can you tell us about the province’s orientations for investment attraction in the coming time?

Ha Giang province is concentrating on strong investment attraction in Thanh Thuy Border Economic Zone; developing border trade with China; developing tourism infrastructure, especially on Dong Van Stone Plateau Geopark; developing advantaged industries like small/medium-sized hydropower works, mineral intensive processing and developing material regions attached with processing of its specific agricultural and forestry products.

The province also encourages investment in quality and high added-value projects which use modern and environmentally-friendly technologies; training highly-qualified human resources, aiming to ensure both the overall benefit and economic restructuring targets which suit the new growth model.

*Ha Giang’s potential for investment attraction is very large, what are the preferential policies that the province has adopted?

To create incentives for socioeconomic development, the provincial People’s Council has issued Resolution 47/2012/NQ-HDND dated July 14, 2012 on six areas, including (1) Production and business activities in border economic zones, IZs and ICs, (2) Processing of agricultural products, (3) Trade and services activities, (4) Agricultural production activities, (5) Vocational training and employment and (6) Developing cultural tourism village.

Therefore those that invest in these areas will receive aid in terms of subsidized interest rates from the provincial credit organizations, 20-70 percent of business premise rents at the border economic zones, costs to establish new cooperatives, assistance in building technical infrastructure like water and electricity supply systems and assistance in advertisements, trade promotion and registration of brand names.-VNA