Workers at a toy factory (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNA) – An investment handbook in different languages is being compiled by the Ho Chi Minh City Export Processing and Industrial Zone Authority (Hepza) to provide businesses with necessary information on local investment procedures.
The handbook publication is among important measures to promote investment into export processing and industrial zones in the city, Tran Viet Ha, head of Hepza’s investment management division, said on October 11.
He noted Hepza will continue asking the municipal People’s Committee and relevant ministries to expeditiously tackle investment-related problems, especially regulations on land lease which is a major cause of a slump in investment into local export processing and industrial zones compared to 2015.
It will also enhance assistance for enterprises to access capital and update production technologies, maintain the single-window mechanism for investment projects, and cut down 30 percent of the administrative procedure handling time.
Hepza is urging new industrial parks to build infrastructure to ensure land supplies for companies to rent, Ha noted.
By September 30, 354.77 million USD of new and additional investment was poured into export processing and industrial zones in HCM City, representing 50.68 percent of this year’s plan and a decline of almost 54 percent from a year earlier.
About 167 million USD of the sum was foreign investments, down 67.4 percent, while domestic investments decreased by 27 percent to 187 million USD, according to Hepza office manager Tran Cong Khanh.
Experiencing the same trend, only 50 hectares of land were leased during the period, dropping by 58 percent. The area of rented facilities approximated 40,000 square metres, down 25.5 percent from the same period in 2015.
Khanh attributed that tumble to problems emerging in the enforcement of the 2013 Law on Land, and the sluggish guidance for the implementation of the 2014 laws on investment and enterprises. Meanwhile, many investors also wants to wait for the parliaments of the member countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement to ratify this deal.-VNA
