Over recent years, the Da Nang authorities have maintained their firm stance on only approving new projects which are environmentally friendly and match with the city’s sustainable development strategies.

Workers at a local automobile factory

Over the past decade, the city authorities have even rejected some FDI projects which might have caused negative impacts on the local environment.  In 2007, for example, the city leaders said “No” to at least 2 FDI projects worth a total of nearly 4 billion USD.  One was a steel mill development by a joint venture between the Taiwan China Steel Corporation and Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd, whilst the other was a Japanese-funded pulp mill.   Last year, the go-ahead was also not given to the construction of 2 South Korean-owned textile factories because their weaving and dyeing processes might have harmed the local environment.

Over the first half of this year, Da Nang was one of the localities in Viet Nam with the lowest number of FDI projects.   The city attracted only 26 new FDI projects worth 10.08 million USD in total, a decrease of 6 in the number of projects and 4.16 million USD in total registered investment capital against the same period last year. 

The main reasons for this are that foreign investors have yet to fulfil their land lease-related financial obligations in accordance with their signed contracts, so their leased land has been revoked.  In addition, the city’s land lease fees and labour costs are higher than those of other Vietnamese localities, and the local support industries have yet to be developed.  Also, special investment attraction mechanisms for the city’s Hi-tech Park have yet to be issued by the central government.

Director of the city’s Investment Promotion Centre Le Canh Duong notes that, since 2010, the city has seen a sharp decrease in FDI inflows.   He stressed the need for the city to have its own special, attractive and competitive mechanisms and policies for appealing for more FDI projects.

According to a spokesperson for the municipal Department of Planning and Investment, top priority has been given to approving environmentally-friendly IT and hi-tech projects over recent years.

Special attention has also been paid to re-checking business land-usage outside local IPs, and to taking back any under-used or unused land inside the IPs in order to re-lease it to businesses in need of land for production activities.  Stronger measures have also been taken to enhance the local investment environment and speed up business-related administrative reforms, with a focus on handling customs and tax procedures.  This has helped to save time and costs for local businesses and residents.

As for credit assistance, the municipal government has granted 568 billion VND for the local Development Investment Fund in the 2015 - 2016 period, increasing the fund’s total to 880 billion VND to facilitate more local businesses to access loans. Also, numerous meetings and dialogues between the city leaders and local businesses have been organised so that the city authorities could listen to and sort out any difficulties facing  businesses.

With regard to the city’s socio-economic development orientations, the focus will be on developing services, tourism, trade, hi-tech, IT, education, healthcare and logistics sectors.  Investment licences will not be granted to projects which use outdated technologies or negatively affect the city’s sustainable development and its global economic integration.