Attending at the bridge point of Binh Duong Provincial Convention and Exhibition Center were Mr. Nguyen Thanh Truc - Vice Chairman of Provincial People's Committee; Mr. Pham Ngoc Thuan - General Director of Becamex IDC Corporation; Mr. Tharabodee Serng Adichaiwit - Director of Bangkok Bank in Vietnam.
At the Thai bridge point, attending the meeting were Mr. Phan Chi Thanh - Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand; Mr. Apichit Prasoprat - Vice Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries; Mr. Sanan Angubolkul - Vice Chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, President of the Thailand-Vietnam Business Council and more than 100 Thai enterprises.
Vietnam has many favorable conditions for investment
Opening the conference, Vietnamese Ambassador to Thailand Phan Chi Thanh highly appreciated the initiative of the Binh Duong Provincial People's Committee and Becamex to hold an online conference to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Thailand. About Vietnam's development orientation, the Ambassador said, in the period of 2021-2030, Vietnam sets a target to increase GDP by 3 times by the end of 2030, attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to reach 200 billion USD. Currently, Vietnam has signed more than 17 free trade agreements creating favorable connections with the world. Assessing Binh Duong, the Ambassador emphasized that Binh Duong is one of the localities to attract FDI ranked the 3rd after Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, with a strategic location, good investment attraction policy, and abundant human resource and is building a Smart City towards digital transformation, science and technology, and innovation. These are favorable conditions for Thai enterprises to invest in Vietnam in general and Binh Duong province in particular. Currently, many large corporations from Thailand have invested in Binh Duong such as SCG, CP, Redbull, etc.
Delegates attend at Binh Duong bridge point
Highly appreciating Vietnam's investment environment, Mr. Apichit Prasoprat - Vice Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries said that Vietnam has an abundant human resource and is also the only country in Southeast Asia with a positive economic growth in the context of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; at the same time, has been very successful in Covid-19 pandemic prevention and control.
Besides, production costs will be reduced by 10-30% if enterprises invest in building new factories in Vietnam; Vietnam's political situation is also always stable; the economy always grows 6-7%/year, the inflation rate is low compared to many countries in Asia. Due to the investment shift of enterprises in the coming time, Vietnam is an attractive place for investors, especially large corporations in the world.
Regarding Vietnam's tax and investment policies, Mr. Thomas - Tax Director of Deloitte in Vietnam said that Vietnam's tax incentives are always stable, creating favorable conditions for enterprises to produce and doing business. Comparing tax policies of Vietnam and other Asian countries, Mr. Thomas said that Vietnam's taxes such as corporate income tax, personal income tax, in the past 10 years (2007-2016), is always stable, VAT has more special incentives. In the coming years, the Government of Vietnam will study for lower incentives. Particularly for the investment environment of Binh Duong, the provincial government always applies tax rates as prescribed by the Government of Vietnam, including special tax incentives in the fields of high technology and technology transfer. In particular, the labor resource is abundant, especially trained labors to meet the needs of enterprises; applying low production costs. Binh Duong is also a locality located in the Southern key economic region, with many industrial parks, attracting foreign direct investment which always ranks in the top of the country.
Binh Duong welcomes investment in many fields
Announcing the investment attraction situation of Binh Duong, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Truc said that, accumulated to the end of February 2021, the province attracted nearly 4,000 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with a total registered capital was nearly 35.8 billion USD. As for Thai investment, up to now, the entire province has 39 investment projects of Thai enterprises with a total capital of over 647 million USD, ranking 12th among 65 countries and regions with investment projects in Binh Duong province. Investment fields are mainly paper production, food, beverage, high-grade plastic and industrial plastic products, production and assembly of civil electrical products, etc.
Up to now, Binh Duong has established bilateral cooperation relationships with 10 foreign provinces and cities and is a partner of 04 multilateral international cooperation organizations. Over the past years, Binh Duong province has actively and proactively implemented the Smart City Project and has achieved some very encouraging results. Binh Duong was the first locality in Vietnam to officially become a member of the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF); continuously in three years of 2019, 2020 and 2021, Binh Duong province has been honored by ICF as one of the 21 cities and regions with the world's typical smart city development strategy (SMART 21). In its development strategy, Binh Duong province will continue to implement the "Binh Duong Innovation Region" Project with the planning of Science and Technology Industrial Park, creative start-up ecosystem, boost the proportion of services, especially e-commerce, international commerce with a typical project of World Trade Center Binh Duong New City.
Overview of the conference at Binh Duong bridge point
In the period of 2021-2025, Binh Duong prioritizes to attract investment in supporting industries such as textile, garment, fiber, and footwear; sectors with high value content, high technology, less labor-intensive work and not much impact on the environment. In addition, a number of other sectors such as wood processing, medicine, pharmacy, high-quality services, etc. are also interested in attracting investment. In the Breakthrough Program realizing the Resolution of the 11th Provincial Party Congress, the province sets a target of developing high-quality services to meet the requirements of sustainable development. For enterprises with innovative start-ups, Binh Duong has issued a Project to support innovative start-ups for small and medium-sized enterprises. Accordingly, striving to 2025, the province will support the formation of 4-5 business incubators, start-up spaces to serve innovative start-up support activities; support the development of 50 innovative start-up projects, 25 enterprises with innovative startups to commercialize their products, in which at least 20% of enterprises successfully call up capital from venture capital funds, carry out mergers and acquisitions with a total estimated value of about 80 billion VND.
Through the conference, provincial leaders respectfully invite Thai investors, enterprises and businessmen to come to Binh Duong to explore opportunities for investment cooperation, to feel more fully about the advantages, potentials, investment cooperation opportunities and socio-economic infrastructure facilities that Binh Duong province has been making efforts to better serve the needs of foreign investors, including Thai ones.
Reported by Mai Xuan - Translated by Nguyen Trang