HCM City (VNA) 🤪– Leading destinations for theflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) such as Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai,Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces, have been shifting their focus toinvestment quality after 30 years attracting foreign capital.

The localities now give priority to high-tech projects andthose creating high added value without causing environmental pollution. As the locomotive of the national economy and the core of thesouthern key economic zone, Ho Chi Minh City is moving towards a dynamiceconomic structure with greater proportion of high added-value andenvironmentally-friendly industries. According to the municipal People’s Committee, the city hasset the goal that the FDI sector contributes around 575.4 trillion VND (USD),or 20.1 percent of total social investment in the city during 2018-2020. Thecity will work to attract FDI into all aspects, thus creating momentum forsustainable and multi-faceted development. Standing Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s CommitteeLe Thanh Liem said in the context of the fourth industrial revolution, Ho ChiMinh City will strive to give intention to FDI projects creating jobs for the “smart”workforce. For the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, FDIwill continue to play an important role in the restructuring of the localeconomy. The provincial administration has affirmed the policy ofselective investment attraction, with priority given to large-scale projectsusing modern technology, producing products with high added-value, consumingless energy and causing less environmental pollution. Ba Ria-Vung Tau hopes to woo 80 new FDI projects with totalcapital of 4 billion USD from now to 2020. Meanwhile, the southern province of Binh Duong set the goalof attracting at least 7 billion USD of FDI during 2016-2020. In its FDI attraction strategy, the province gives attentionto high-quality services and environmentally-friendly industries with highvalue, while phasing out investment in labour-intensive industries. The southern province of Dong Nai is orienting the FDIinflow to the support industry, which has so far been a bottleneck inindustrial development in the locality. Besides big corporations, the province alsoencourages small- and medium-sized enterprises to invest in the supportindustry. In order to improve the FDI inflow, Deputy Director of theForeign Investment Agency Dang Xuan Quang advised localities to completespecialised development plans for each socio-economic aspect such as land use,specific industrial sector, and urban areas. Attention should be paid to the connection among road,waterway and aviation networks and industrial parks, thus creating favourableconditions for enterprises to cut production costs and enhance competitiveness,he said. Prof. Vo Thanh Thu, senior lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh CityEconomics University, said each city and province should consider their localdevelopment plans in the context of regional plans and increase linkages withother localities in the region.-VNA