Hanoi maintains attractiveness towards foreign investors

Hanoi (VNA) – The capital city of Hanoi ranked third among cities and provinces nationwide in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first seven months of this year with 979.7 million USD, affirming its attractiveness to foreign investors.

According to local authorities, this is the result of the city’s efforts to ensure an open and smooth investment and business environment and administrative procedures.

Vice Director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment Nguyen Ngoc Tu said that since the beginning of this year, the city has applied various measures to speed up socio-economic recovery and development.

As a result, it has seen increases in many economic indicators in the January-July period, including budget collection of 213.16 trillion VND (9.11 billion USD), fulfilling 68.4% of its yearly target, and equivalent to 116% of the figure recorded in the same period last year.

At the same time, the city’s export revenue reached 9.84 billion USD, up 17.2% year on year, including 5.43 billion USD from the domestic sector and 4.4 billion USD from the FDI sector.

Meanwhile, the city’s index of industrial production (IIP) rose 7.2%, with the processing-manufacturing sector increasing 7.5%.

Total retail sales of goods and services in the city reached nearly 397 trillion VND, up 22% year on year.

In the first seven months of this year, the capital city welcomed 337,000 foreign visitors, doubling that in the same period in 2021.

Since 1987, the city attracted about 67.81 billion USD in FDI. In the 2016-2019 period, Hanoi enjoyed a breakthrough growth in FDI attraction with 26.5 billion USD, becoming the leading locality in the field in 2018 and 2019.

In 2020, the city managed to lure 3.83 billion USD of FDI, ranking third among 63 cities and provinces nationwide, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, due to strict social distancing measures induced by a serious wave of COVID-19, Hanoi only attracted 1.52 billion USD, ranking sixth.

But FDI flows into the city recovered strongly in the first seven months of this year, with 979.7 million USD poured into 201 new and 109 underway projects as well as 242 capital contribution deals.

In the period of extensive international economic integration, the city has defined the business community in general and FDI firms in particular as an important motivation for the city’s development.

Tu said that in the time to come, Hanoi will continue to take strong actions to improve its business and investment environment, making it more transparent and fair to ensure successful and sustainable development of enterprises, contributing to the development of the city and the country as a whole.

Last year, the city issued a plan on the completion of institutions and policies to enhance the quality and effectiveness of foreign investment cooperation until 2030.

Under the plan, the city aims to attract foreign investment in line with sustainable development targets.

The city will prioritise high quality projects with products having high added value and high competitiveness, focusing on urban infrastructure development, smart city building, information technology, development research, tourism, financial-banking, human resources training, high-tech agriculture, and safe food.

Investment promotion work will be reformed for better effectiveness in association with promotion of trade, tourism, external relations and culture activities. The city has defined targeted markets to introduce its potential and advantages,.

At the same time, Hanoi will strengthen the application of information technology in processing administrative procedures related to business and investment registration, tax, insurance and land.

It will make public all planning of sectors and regions as well as land use plans through various forms, thus ensuring that all businesses can easily access information necessary for making investment decisions./.