Hung Yen moves to tackle difficulties facing enterprises

Hung Yen (VNA) – Leaders of the northern province of Hung Yen have had a meeting with local companies and entrepreneurs to address their concerns about administrative procedures and site clearance issues to improve the business climate.

Businesses proposed authorities tackle problems in the collection of land use tax, frequently update information on departments and sectors’ websites, increase measures for promoting cooperation with other countries to expand export markets, and allocate funding for training and supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Tran Quoc Van requested relevant agencies to absorb the opinions and quickly take actions to remove obstacles facing companies.

He called on investors and businesses operating in the province to proactively equip themselves with modern technology, stay updated with scientific and technological advances, and improve their management and governance capacity so as to raise productivity, profit, and competitiveness.

The official also asked them to pay more attention to social responsibility, guarantee employees’ legitimate interests, ensure occupational health and safety, and protect the environment.

He told the business associations of Hung Yen and its district-level localities to properly bring into play their role in connecting the business community with administrations by holding regular workshops to listen to their member’s opinions, proposing provincial leaders organise meetings with enterprises to address difficulties and obstacles, disseminating policies and laws to their members, and promoting the care for employees.

Hoang Quang Phong, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), asked Hung Yen to keep working to improve the investment climate so as to become a leading province in investment attraction, capitalise on its strengths in location and human resources to comprehensively develop the local economy and enhance links with other localities and regions in industrial development, and form a contingent of dynamic and creative entrepreneurs.

In 2022, Hung Yen posted a growth rate of 12.8% in gross regional domestic product (GRDP), ranking first in the Red River Delta and fifth nationwide. Growth of each local sector surpassed its set target, with the index of industrial production up 10.4%, the trade and service value 19.45%, and the state budget revenue rising 2.63-fold from the target to reach the highest-ever level and make the province among the top 10 nationwide in this regard.

Last year, per capita GDP increased over 16% from 2021 to 102.3 million VND (nearly 4,400 USD) while labour productivity stood at 196 million VND each worker, higher than the national average.

In the first two months of 2023, the local industrial production grew by 10.48% while the total retail of goods and consumption services soared by 225.34%.

Meanwhile, Hung Yen attracted 169.77 million USD in foreign investment in the first quarter of this year, making it one of the top 10 foreign investment destinations in Vietnam during the period.

The province is currently home to 2,145 valid investment projects, including 1,631 domestic and 514 foreign-invested ones, worth almost 310.9 trillion VND and more than 6.2 billion USD, respectively. Local industrial infrastructure is developing rapidly with eight out of the 17 planned industrial parks already operational and ready to welcome projects. Nine others are under construction at present.

In the 2022 Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) recently released by the VCCI, Hung Yen jumped 25 steps from the previous year to rank 14th among the 63 provinces and centrally-run cities.

Many of its sub-indexes improved considerably, including access to land (0.7 point and 36 places), informal charges (1.1 points and 40 places), proactivity (0.2 point and 17 places), and law and order (1.1 points and 33 places).

This result demonstrated VCCI and enterprises’ recognition of efforts by the entire political system in the province in improving the business environment and economic governance./.