Vietnam tries to drive foreign investment into big projects

Vietnam is now targeting big groups when calling for foreign direct investment (FDI) and directing investors’ attention to its key projects.

The US First Solar Group, one of the biggest energy groups in the world, has been officially present in Vietnam since January 21, 2011, when the group received the investment license to build solar panels with thin-film technology in Dong Nam Industrial Zone in Cu Chi district of HCM City. With the total investment capital of one billion dollars and US$300 million for the first phase of the project , the plant of First Solar is expected to become operational from mid 2012.

According to Tymen Dejong, Deputy President of First Solar Group, in the first phase of the project, the plant will have four production lines producing 238MW of electricity. The second phase will begin in early 2013, so that the production can begin before January 2015. By that time, the total capacity will increase four folds.

Another good information in terms of FDI attraction is that in early February, Taiwanese Formosa Group imported 2400 tons of equipments for the steel complex in Vung Ang Industrial Zone in Ha Tinh province. The investment capital for first phase of the project is US$7.8 billion. This is good news because the huge project resumed after a long interruption.

News released recently all say that more and more of the world’s leading industrial groups are seeking investment opportunities in Vietnam.

Nguyen Thi Minh Hien, investment counselor in South Korea, has confirmed the trend, saying that most of the biggest groups in South Korea have been making outward investment. “Previously, they mostly invested in China. However, they now tend to go to Vietnam or Indonesia,” Hien said. South Korea now considers Vietnam a good investment destination with great potentials and effective investment opportunities thanks to its political stability and, industrious and skillful labor force.

Hien cited the case of Samsung as an example. Samsung Group, after building a US$670 million mobile phone factory in Bac Ninh province late last year, has decided to expand it into a complex – Samsung Complex – with the total expected investment capital of $1.5 billion.

trade counselors at Vietnamese embassies have all confirmed that foreign groups look at Vietnam a an attractive investment destination.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment, the main agency responsible for attracting FDI, says that according to the FDI promotion plan for 2011 Vietnam will target big foreign investors and direct their attention to key projects.

Commenting on the plan, Giang Thanh Tung, the investment promotion representative in San Francisco in the US, says that this is a right decision. Tung says instead of organizing too many workshops on investment promotion and trying to call for investment from all markets, which is a waste of time and money, in the time to come, Vietnam should target specific big corporations and conglomerates which are financially and technologically powerful.

“In order to persuade big conglomerates to invest in Vietnam, it is necessary to apply the policies specifically designed for them and which offer the highest possible preferences,” Tung says. “The success in persuading the big foreign partners will pave the way for attracting other satellite projects”.

In related news, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has released a report on the registered FDI in January 2011.

By January 24, 2011, 40 new projects had been granted licenses with the total registered capital of $182.3 million, equal to just 15.6 percent of that of the same period of the previous year. – Vietnamnet

Tags: invest in Vietnam, Vietnam FDI, Vietnam FDI 2011, Vietnam investment