Vietnam needs to adjust its policies on foreign direct investment (FDI) and target quality investors as the competition to attract investment becomes fiercer at both regional and international levels.
The Chairman of the Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises, Dr. Nguyen Mai, stated this after witnessing the slow progress of a number of FDI projects, with capital of several billion US dollars. A number of projects have already almost had their investment certificates withdrawn.
In an interview granted to the Lao Dong (Labour) daily issued on August 25, Do Nhat Hoang, Head of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), said that the agency has conducted an inspection of 24 projects captalised with more than US$1 billion across the country to select eligible investors.
Accordingly, the FIA will withdraw the licenses of virtual projects and not grant certificates to investors with only a limited capacity, said Hoang. However it will still consider supporting projects which are only now slowly making progress, due to the impact of the global economic crisis, or projects that have faced unexpected difficulties.
This year, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) plans to select and guide FDI projects into pivotal areas such as supporting industries, infrastructure development, the manufacture of high export value products and human resources projects in line with restructuring the economy.
However, said Hoang, to reach the target, more effort and responsibility are needed from the MPI as well as local agencies to attract more investment.
Therefore, localities need to improve their ability to appraise projects and the capacity of investors, while holding legal responsibility, instead of taking a back seat and performing only supervisory tasks.
According to the MPI, Vietnam will attract about $21 billion in FDI this year and disburse $14-15 billion during the global economy’s recovery.
