Hau Giang seeks to woo farm processors

The Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang will give a red-carpet welcome to enterprises investing in farm produce and aquatic processing sectors in the locality, and will make this clear at an investment promotion conference next week, said a senior official.

Hau Giang is known for its rice output and aquatic farming, but the province still lacks storage and processing facilities, said Nguyen Van Thang, vice chairman of the province at a meeting with investors in HCMC last Friday. Therefore, Hau Giang will seek to lure investors into these sectors at a conference scheduled for November 18, he said.

“We are calling for investment to increase the storage and processing capacity in the province,” Thang said.

Hau Giang is a key rice-growing province of the country, yielding an average annual output of one million tons of rice including 350,000 to 400,000 tons of commercial rice. However, Thang said, storage facilities in Hau Giang have a combined capacity of 50,000 tons only, or 12% of the export volume, while processing facilities meet only 17% of this demand.

The investment conference next Wednesday is a prelude to the first-ever Vietnam Rice Festival that will take place in Hau Giang from November 26 to 30 to promote Vietnamese rice. The organizers are Hau Giang Province and the Southern Food Corporation.

Aquaculture is another strength, he said.

“Hau Giang has great potential in farming thac lac fish, or featherback notopterus, which is its specialty,” he said, adding the province wants to expand the production of this local fish to make it the second “key” export seafood of the delta behind tra catfish.

Apart from farm produce and aquatic processing that are in dire need of investment, Hau Giang will also call on investors to develop industrial park infrastructure.

Thang said that several projects would be presented at the conference to develop large industrial parks near national highways No. 1A and No. 61 and in close proximity to waterways, especially the Quan Chanh Bo passage that will be dredged to allow vessels of up to 30,000 DWT.

Asked about the incentive policies, Thang cited low or exempted land rentals and credit support among others. Furthermore, every agency in the province would help investors with quick and easy administrative procedures, he said.

“Investors will be exempted from land lease fees, and land and water surface taxes for 3-15 years,” Thang said. The province will help investors with land clearance by lending them funds for paying compensation to landowners.

The province, which is Can Tho City’s southern neighbor and only 240km southeast of HCMC, is offering zero import and export taxes, a 15-20% reduction on corporate income tax for 10-12 years and soft loans for every investor, he said.

The rice festival, the first of its kind in the country, will feature more than 20 events, including a number of cultural activities. The festival backed by the Government is expected attract many foreign delegations.

Tags: Vietnam agriculture, Vietnam business news