Experts pan failed border economic zones

With the number of border gate economic zones exceeding the planned number and functioning inefficiently, analysts have called on the government to review their operation and focus investment on those with potential for development.
The government had planned to develop 27 zones by 2015 but there are already 28. Their functioning has, however, fallen far short of expectation.

The government had targeted trade of US$14 billion via the zones last year but the actual figure was a mere $5.44 billion, or just 10 percent of the country’s total trade.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Economic Service Agency, which is in charge of developing the zones, admitted they were not operating efficiently.

But Luu Quang Khanh, head of the agency, said their development also depended on the country on the other side of the border.

While those on the Chinese border had been doing well, the economic zones that had been developing slowly and failed to attract investors were on the borders with Laos and Cambodia, whose economies were not developed and bilateral trade and with whom Vietnam’s trade was low, he said.

Assoc Prof Dr Vo Dai Luoc of the Institute of Social Sciences told Tuoi Tre that the large-scale development of border economic zones worried him.

“I have been to a border economic zone where more than 20,000 hectares of land was almost deserted,” he said.

It was a big mistake to build many border economic zones in localities where there was no necessity for them.

“This would do harm to the economy. The government should first stop building new zones and then review the operations of all existing ones.”

Economist Le Dang Doanh said the zones were wasting not only thousands of billions of dong of public money but also taking over hundreds of thousands of hectares of agricultural land.

Khanh said his agency would appraise the economic zones and suggest solutions to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Tuoi Tre

Tags: Vietnam economic zones