Binh Dinh province expects year-end investment surge

Binh Dinh province on Vietnam’s central coast expects to lure investments worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars in the remaining months of this year, authorities say.

Dang Vinh Son, head of the Binh Dinh Economic Zone Administration (BEZA), said the province has just granted in-principle approval to Binh Dinh Hoang Ha Paper JSC for developing a VND900 billion ($36.1 million) packaging paper plant in Nhon Hoa Industrial Park.

The 26,746-square-meter project, implemented in two phases, will have an annual capacity of 30,000 tons.

The provincial EZ administration is also about to grant in-principle approvals for a wood manufacturing project at the Nhon Hoi Industrial Park and another at the Becamex-VSIP Industrial Park this month or the next. The combined value of these projects is about $150 million, Son added.

BEZA has been tasked with attracting 30 projects totaling VND3 trillion ($120.3 million) this year. In the year to date, just 10 projects worth VND670 billion ($26.8 million) have reached local industrial parks, Son said, adding that the while the administration may fail to meet the goal of number of projects, it would achieve the investment capital target.

So far this year, Binh Dinh has licensed 34 projects worth VND4.19 trillion ($168.2 million), approved additional investments of VND1.83 trillion ($73.4 million) for 54 existing projects, and rescinded nine projects.

Notably, the province has not lured any foreign-invested projects since early this year.

To remedy the situation, the province is preparing to call for investment from 12 nations: South Korea, Thailand, Australia, Japan, India, Israel, Germany, France, the U.S., China, the Netherlands and Singapore.