An international investment promotion campaign recently took place in Ninh Thuan province. Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet was there, together with provincial leaders and representatives of international organizations and almost 700 domestic and foreign businesses. With this event, Vietnam was for the first time promoting green and clean investment.
A strategy for green and clean development
While other provinces and cities in Vietnam have not, Ninh Thuan has called for green, clean investment in the areas of industry, agriculture, fishery and tourism, wanting to make it a basis for the development of education-training, healthcare and infrastructure. The campaign is also to get Ninh Thuan off the list of the 10 poorest provinces in the country and make it an ideal destination for domestic and foreign investors.
Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet was there to invite investors to Ninh Thuan and encourage them and the people of the province to make use of the potential and contribute to development.
Nguyen Chi Dung, the chairman of the Ninh Thuan Province People's Committee, said that after hiring Monitor and Arup (foreign consultants from US and UK), provincial leaders felt that the province could attain rapid and sustainable growth as did Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong-China. By doing so the province would like to create a friendly investment environment, and a green, clean ambience for experts, skilled workers and foreign investors.
The emphasis of the investment promotion campaign was on clean industrial production, clean energy (wind and solar energy), luxury resorts, health, training and more. In its development strategy Ninh Thuan considers the Binh Tien Resort to be a development engine.
Most domestic and foreign experts, consultants and businesses spoke highly of Ninh Thuan's green, clean development strategy.
Chris Malone, Monitor's senior expert, said that his group has served as consultant for projects in hundreds of countries and that Ninh Thuan's green, clean investment strategy is challenging but promising because of the assistance which the government seems willing to offer and the local authorities' good vision. He also said that now is a good time to invest in Ninh Thuan because it is underdeveloped and it is expected to undergo economic restructuring. The development strategy will make it possible for the province to attract investment in three areas - wind energy, a support industry associated with a nuclear power plant that is to be built in Ninh Thuan in a few years, and infrastructure.
Hiroyuki Moribe, the chief representative of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), said that under this development strategy, Ninh Thuan will create the national standard for green, clean industry, energy and tourism. Regarding tourism, Ninh Thuan would like to team-up with Nha Trang, with its nice beaches, and Da Lat, with its Champa cultural sites, to become a regional tourism spotlight. Green and clean investment is also to include infrastructure projects, which would improve health, education and the human environment. Seeing the prospects for Ninh Thuan, Hiroyuki Moribe called on Japanese businesses to set up high-tech projects in the province.
Wilfred Lau, representing the Arup Group, said that with this strategy Ninh Thuan will make the most of its potential for sustainable urban development. In addition, Ninh Thuan's development projects are to reduce the effects of climate change. Wilfred Lau said that despite the challenges, Ninh Thuan should be persistent in developing green, clean investment to become an attractive destination for investors.
Sharing this feeling, Preben Hjortlund, the vice chairman of Eurocham, said that Ninh Thuan's green, clean development plan could make the province an investment magnet and a wonderful place for development ideas. He said that Ninh Thuan has a good investment attraction policy and good infrastructure, education, health and tourism facilities. For these reasons, Preben Hjortlund said that he believed that European businesses should be willing to cooperate with Ninh Thuan to carry out projects in the areas of infrastructure, education, training, administration and more.
Domestic businesses are ready
The green, clean development plan for Ninh Thuan has also caught the attention of domestic businesses. Doan Quoc Viet, the general director of the Ha Long Investment and Manufacture Co., Ltd., (BIM) said that because of the potential, advantages and a promising investment ambience of Ninh Thuan, BIM has begun three large projects there. These are the VND600-billion Salt Industry Economic Zone, the VND350-billion High-quality Salt Processing Complex and a VND200-billion project to build a center that is to create disease-resistant white shrimp. At this time, BIM is preparing to build a wind energy facility in Ninh Phuoc district that's expected to cost US$500-750 million.
Nguyen Hoa Binh, the chairman of the board at Vietcombank, said that the bank is happy to work with domestic and foreign investors who wish to invest in Ninh Thuan. Vietcombank has pledged to provide VND1 trillion in preferential loans for green, clean investors in Ninh Thuan in the areas of tourism, wind power and salt production. Vietcombank expects that it will be making available additional loan capital that can be invested in industrial zones and large residential areas in the province.
Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc said that his Ministry will get together with Ninh Thuan to make it a national green, clean industry/energy/tourism center and take it off the list of the 10 poorest provinces in Vietnam.
Ninh Thuan People's Committee chairman Nguyen Chi Dung said that the province has issued licenses to companies that wish to begin VND3 trillion worth of investment projects and is about to issue licenses to businesses that wish to invest VND21 trillion more.