Hanoi is making great strides to attract environmentally-friendly foreign direct investment projects, the Vietnam Investment Review (VIR) reported.

In early August 2014, Hanoi issued a new post-investment interest support programme. Throughout this year, the city plans to offer a 0.2 percent per month loan interest to medium and long-term loans of at least one year for businesses based in Hanoi who take loans for new investment projects, expand project scope or invest in equipment and technology innovations.

The move aims to help city-based businesses to remove difficulties in production and training amid the slow economic recovery, said Director of the Hanoi Municipal Authority for Planning and Investment Ngo Van Quy.

“We are scaling up efforts to attract investment from domestic and external sources,” Quy told the VIR, adding that thanks to these efforts during 2008-2013 Hanoi had lured around 1,141 trillion VND (54.3 billion USD) in the total investment development capital to satisfy the city’s development needs.

Hanoi currently stands third in terms of wooing FDI. By end of June, the city was home to 2,806 on-going foreign direct investment (FDI) projects worth 21.1 billion USD in the total committed investment capital. Growing visibility of global players like Japan’s Panasonic and Canon in its industrial parks (IPs) have made a significant contribution to the local industrial production and export development.

As of June, foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) posted revenues of about 4.86 billion USD, up 12.3 percent on-year. FIEs also contributed more than 2.6 billion USD, representing 48.6 percent of the city’s total export value.

However, city officials admit that FDI inflows could be higher.

“We may expect big turnabout in the coming period in the wake of the city’s reformed investment promotion mechanism. Detailed steps are embedded in the city’s investment promotion programme for 2014-2015 with an orientation to 2020,” Quy was quoted as saying.

The programme, approved by the city’s management authorities in June, seeks to promote investment on a selective basis, targeting strategic partners, key foreign markets as well as hi-tech fields with high added value.

The Hanoi Municipal Authority for Planning and Investment’s statistics show that from 2011 to 2020, Hanoi needs to attract 3,900-4,100 trillion VND (180-190 billion USD) for an ambitious list of socio-economic development tasks.

Some 50-55 billion USD has been earmarked for the 2012-2015 period alone and the city wishes to woo up to 20 percent of this sum from FDI.

In parallel to hosting investment promotion programmes at home and abroad, Hanoi will also pay due heed to spurring on-site investment through increasing support to projects which were granted investment certificates and hosting frequent dialogues with investors to settle their problems in a timely manner.

“A new investment wave will arise if every stakeholder is committed and we effectively handle this ambitious investment promotion programme,” Quy told the VIR.-VNA