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The most convenient gateway to the sea via the highlands region, Southern Laos, Northeastern Cambodia and Thailand, central Binh Dinh province is emerging as one of central Vietnam's most attractive locations for investors. Ninh Kieu reports.

Many foreign investors searching for a site in Vietnam immediately flock to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam's key economic zones, where they can benefit from high productivity, skilled workers and increasingly good infrastructure.

But the Hong Kong-based Hong Yeung Company took a different route, skipping Vietnam's two major cities in favour of a location in central Binh Dinh province, 300 kilometers south of Danang and 600 kilometers north of Ho Chi Minh City. The company obtained an investment certificate to develop an industrial park in the province, expecting a strong inflow of investment to Binh Dinh in the future.

"With the advantage of geographical position and rapid economic development in recent years, Binh Dinh is a good place for making investments," said Xu Xie Feng Pei, general director of Hong Yeung.

Last year, Hong Yeung broke ground on its USD30 million industrial park in Binh Dinh's Nhon Hoi Economic Zone. Though the park is still under construction, four foreign investors have registered to build factories inside the park with a total investment capital of about USD100 million.

"Based on the advantages and the trend of investment inflow in this province, we believe our industrial park project will be successful," Feng Pei said.

Recently, Binh Dinh has seen an upsurge in investment projects. According to the Binh Dinh Planning and Investment Department, the province lured 30 foreign investment projects with a total registered capital of USD410 million from the United States, Japan, China, Korea, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Thailand and Australia.

Binh Dinh has also attracted a large number of domestic investors. Official figures released by the Provincial People's Committee shows that domestic companies have invested into 169 projects in Binh Dinh with a total capital of about USD1.3 billion since 2006.

"If we compare the figures to other provinces in the country's key economic zones, it is really a modest result. But it is not a bad result for a central province where the infrastructure system has been underdeveloped for a long time," said Nguyen Thanh Hai, director of Binh Dinh Investment Promotion Center.

Hai said that the number of investors coming to the province has increased sharply over the past three years.

"If we look at the large area of the central and highlands region, Binh Dinh is an ideal place to invest, especially for factories making products for export," said Nguyen Thi Kim Cuc, general director of HBC Investment and Services Joint Stock Company.

According to the annual Provincial Competitiveness Index, which reflects the quality of provincial investments, conducted by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the United States' Agency for International Development, Binh Dinh ranked 11th out of 63 provinces nationwide.

"The advantage of location gives the province a prominent advantage in terms of promotion of regional and international communication and trade relations," Cuc said.

Like Hong Yeung Company, Cuc's company is now building a 228-hectare industrial park in the province. The company is also planning to develop a Metro-Kim Cuc tourism and commercial complex, covering an area of about 107 hectares in Quy Nhon City, she said.

Following in HBC's footsteps, another domestic investor, An Phu Thinh Joint Stock Company is developing a large commercial centre in the province.

Nguyen Thanh, director of the An Phu Thinh Joint Stock Company, said he saw a bright outlook for Binh Dinh's economic development.

Thanh said the more Vietnam integrated into regional and international economies, the more Binh Dinh would appear on the radar of domestic and foreign investors.

At present, Binh Dinh's Quy Nhon seaport is the third busiest port in Vietnam, after Saigon port complexes in the South and Haiphong port complex in the North. Last year, Quy Nhon seaport handled about four million tonnes of goods, much higher than Danang port--the largest port in the central region.

"The rise of trade and investment has put Quy Nhon in a situation of severe overload," said Hai. The port is designed to handle around 1.5 million tonnes of goods per year.

Aware of the importance of Binh Dinh to the economic development of the central highlands and south central region, the government has defined it as one of five provinces in the key economic region of central Vietnam and agreed to upgrade the capacity of the port.

Hai said investors would no longer have to worry about insufficient transport infrastructure in Binh Dinh.

In addition to the advantages of geographic position and a transport system, leaders in Binh Dinh are expecting to lure more investors by pushing the development of Nhon Hoi Economic Zone.

This economic zone, established in June 2005, will be developed into a general economic zone with its own operating regulations. It will be a non-tariff zone, industrial zone, seaport service zone, tourist area and new urban area.

This zone covers an area of about 12,000 hectares and was exclusively granted an incentive mechanism by the Prime Minister.

It is among the chain of four key economic zones, including Dung Quat in neighbouring Quang Ngai province, Chu Lai in Quang Nam and Lang Co-Chan May in Thua Thien Hue, that the government wants to develop to boost economic development in the impoverished central region of Vietnam.

According to statistics from the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone Management Board, the zone has drawn more than 50 investors with registered business plans.

Investors include Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contractor, Taiwan's Formosa Group, China's Abestech, Singaporean Boustead and German Bitburger.

So far, about 20 investment projects have been granted a license worth about $900 million.

To enhance the attractiveness of the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone, the government built the Thi Nai Bridge, the longest sea-spanning bridge in Vietnam, linking Quy Nhon City to the zone.

Mai Ngoc Ly, head of the zone's management board, said the province was focusing on infrastructure projects within the zone to make it more attractive to investors.

He said the zone would be Binh Dinh's key attraction to foreign and domestic investors.

"Coming to this economic zone, investors can make large investments in core or hi-tech industries such as deep seaport construction, ship building and repairing, petrochemicals and oil refinery, electric or electronic product manufacturing and assembly, electricity production, tourism development, services related to trade and marine shipping, finance, banking, post and telecommunications," said Ly.

Investors can choose to locate their investment projects in the tariff zone, non-tariff zone or export processing zone, he said.

Source: Vietnam Investment Review