Central Highlands Gia Lai Province Laying Red Carpet to Welcome Investors

Despite not having many advantages, Gia Lai has achieved positive results in attracting investment with its determination to create a convenient and appealing investment environment. More and more enterprises come to Gia Lai to investigate and make investment. Almost all of such enterprises and investors are operating effectively, making an important contribution to the socio-economic development of the province.

In order to help investors have an overall understanding of Gia Lai’s investment environment and policies, Vietnam Business Forum’s journalist has an interview with Mr. Tran The Vinh, Director of the provincial Planning and Investment.

 

Could you please tell us about Gia Lai’s achievements in attracting investment?
Gia Lai has achieved certain results in attracting investment since 2005. 147 projects were implemented with a registered capital totaling VND35,000 billion, of which 110 projects are in industry – construction area with a registered capital sum of VND31,365 billion; 19 projects are for infrastructural construction and improvement with a registered capital of VND4,161 billion; 55 projects are in processing industry area with a registered capital of VND19,905 billion; 36 projects are in hydroelectricity area with a registered capital of VND7,570 billion; 27 projects are in agriculture and forestry area with a registered capital of VND1,289 billion; 10 projects are in service sector with a registered capital of VND1,802 billion.

 

What advantages does Gia Lai have in attracting investment?
Gia Lai has a natural area of 15,536.7 square kilometers. Land for agriculture makes up over 80 %. Up to now, some 400,000 hectares of farming land have been used. The fund of land for agricultural development is still very large.

 

In terms of infrastructure, Gia Lai shares 90 km of border with Cambodia. It is home to Le Thanh international border gate, Pleiku airway station, and some large hydroelectric plants including Ialy, Se San 3A and Se San 4A, etc. These are favorable conditions for the province’s economic development. Gia Lai also has an advantageous location for traffic development.

 

Gia Lai is located right at the heart of the region, which gives it a favourable condition to accelerate cooperation with neighbouring provinces to develop and improve its existing advantages to raise its production capacity and competitiveness. In addition, being situated in the Vietnam – Laos – Cambodia development triangle is also a big advantage of Gia Lai.

 

What policies does Gia Lai have in order to attract investment effectively and to create an appealing investment environment for investors?
Apart from common policies on investment of the state, Gia Lai province issues its own policies. It promulgates Decision No. 84/2007/QD-UBND dated 27 August 2007 which provides specific preferential treatment and support for investors. In terms of areas prioritized with investment, all the districts and towns in Gia Lai currently are being listed as areas with extremely hard socio-economic conditions when considered for investment. In terms of support mechanism, the province also issues a policy to support job training fee for investment projects within the provincial area, depending on each training mode. Besides, the province extends support for research activities to transfer technology for enterprises which make investment in production and business in Gia Lai via technology application. It has a policy to support construction of infrastructural system in areas with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions, and to aid site clearance activity so that clean site can be delivered to investors. Investors are given certain support in infrastructure usage fee in industrial zones. Investment projects in industrial zones are exempted from paying technical infrastructure usage fee in the first five years since the projects get started and a discount of 50 % in the next five years.  

 

Annually, based on plans of each sector and socio-economic development plans of the province, districts, towns and its city, Gia Lai makes a list of projects calling for investment, creating favourable conditions for investors to research and select investment opportunity. The province also attaches importance to accelerating administrative reform and creating good conditions for enterprises to register for establishment and conduct business. Up to now, time taken to get a business registry profile and tax registry profile at the department of planning and investment has been shortened to five working days.  

 

Which areas in Gia Lai are being prioritized and offered preferential treatment in attracting investment?
Rural and agricultural & forestry development is being given top priority in Gia Lai. Besides, the province concentrates on developing industries, including agricultural and forestry product processing industry, hydroelectricity and materials for construction. Further investment is also being made to develop infrastructure system, including the traffic system, post and telecommunications, commerce and tourism service, electricity system, and irrigation and water drainage system in urban areas in order to meet development requirements of the economy.