Create breakthrough based on available advantages

Hoa Binh is the gateway to the Northwest region of Vietnam, located in the Capital region planning, and a point of trade intersection with the Northern Delta provinces and the South through a developed road system. In recent year, the local government has invested methodically in large projects, exerted efforts to strongly improve the business and investment environment in order to build a quickly and sustainably developed Hoa Binh.

The province has rich mineral resources; concentrated and large surface water resources; abundant land resources, with high fertility, and large unused land fund. Favorable soil and climate conditions are potential for agricultural economic development, especially the development of industrial crops, forestry and organic agriculture.

In addition, Hoa Binh has many natural scenic spots, traditional cultural identities associated with villages of many ethnic groups like Muong, Thai, Tay, Mong, and Dao, many nature reserves, and many wonderful caves, which are favorable for the development of eco-tourism, cultural, spiritual, adventure, and community tourism.

Based on the above strengths, and advantages of a rather convenient location, with good infrastructure system, especially the improved traffic network, a network of industrial zones and industrial clusters, Hoa Binh has great potential for the development of supporting industries, agro-processing industry, organic agriculture, tourism industry, especially textiles and garments, electronic components, processed foods, hydro power industries. The province also has many opportunities to develop and provide services and products for consumers in in the capital region and the Northern key economic region.

In 2022, the province's industry has gradually recovered after a long time affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many fields have reported high growth. The industrial production index in January-September 2022 is estimated to increase by 18% over the same period last year. The industrial production value is estimated at 33,056 billion VND, an increase of 18% year on year.

The processing and manufacturing industry developed stably in January-September 2022. Some key products such as electronics, garments, steel structures and metal products grew well, with 7.6% for garments, 5.86% for electronics, and 3.5% for steel structure and metal products. For electricity production and distribution, electricity production was estimated at 8,163.5 million KWh, up 18.6% over the same period last year; commercial power output was estimated at 880.13 million KWh, up 5.4% year on year.

The Provincial People's Committee has directed agencies and local authorities to effectively implement the Project on development of industry and handicrafts in 2022 in the last 3 months of the year; giving support to investors to complete infrastructure of industrial zones and industrial clusters; solving difficulties to promote production and business activities of enterprises in industrial zones and industrial clusters, especially enterprises in the fields of garment, electronic components, and construction material.

With the potential and available advantages, Hoa Binh Province is determined to create breakthroughs and realize the goal of socio-economic development at the highest level.

Success comes from the whole political system’s efforts

With the determination to innovate and create breakthroughs in economic development, in recent years, the Provincial People's Committee has paid special attention to directing and administering the implementation of tasks and solutions to improve the business environment, enhance competitiveness, and improve provincial competitiveness index (PCI).

In addition, the Provincial People's Committee has directed local agencies to review and announce the list of newly promulgated administrative procedures, the list of amended and supplemented administrative procedures; lists of removed administrative procedures in the field of land investment, construction and business; and to publicly list administrative procedures as well as provincial development plans.

Hoa Binh Province has opened the Center for Public Administration Service and the Center for Investment Promotion, Trade and Tourism. It has focused on modernizing the administrative system and building e-government through using software to monitor and supervise state agencies in performing assigned tasks. The operations of state agencies are reviewed on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis.

The Provincial People's Committee requires heads of departments, agencies, the People's Committees of districts and towns and other state agencies to take responsibility for fulfilling the assigned tasks in order to implement the province’s targeted Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). These agencies are also asked to be active in improving the business investment environment, enhancing province's competitiveness.

In the field of tourism - services, with the goal of building Hoa Binh province into an attractive destination with typical tourism products, a leading tourist center in Vietnam, the Provincial Party Committee, the People's Council and the Provincial People's Committee have issued many policies to promote tourism development in recent years. The local authorities have also restructured the local tourism industry towards professionalism, modernity, sustainable development, to turn the tourism industry into Hoa Binh’s spearhead economic sector.

At the same time, the province has developed mechanisms and policies to support tourism development investment; strengthened promotion, advertising, training and development of human resources; created a favorable environment for businesses and the community to develop tourism. The local government has focused on renovating state management in the direction of serving businesses and people, on administrative reform and promoting digitizing transformation.

The province has mobilized resources to invest in tourism infrastructure with specific focus, in which attention is paid to upgrading and expanding a number of roads to tourist sites, especially the roads to the core area of the Hoa Binh Lake tourist area. As a result, Hoa Binh has attracted many big investors in tourism projects.

With high political determination, the province has achieved important results in investment attraction and business development. In the 2016-2020 period, Hoa Binh province attracted 284 investment projects, including 17 foreign-invested projects with a total registered capital of about 47,965 billion VND (domestic investment capital of 41,624 billion VND, FDI capital of 275.7 million USD). There were 2,100 newly registered enterprises with a registered capital of about 30,000 billion VND and 290 newly established cooperatives. In 2020, the number of enterprises and cooperatives doubled that of 2015, reaching 3,800 enterprises and 360 cooperatives.

Thanks to the efforts of the local authorities in recent years, the province's PCI has continuously increased. In 2019, the PCI reached 63.84 points, an increase of 2.11 points compared to 2018, ranked 48th out of 63 provinces and cities. This was the year with the highest point ever and for the first time Hoa Binh province was classified in the group of provinces of good governance.

Since the 17th Party Congress of Hoa Binh province, 2020-2025 term, Hoa Binh province has actively improved the investment environment, setting the goal of attracting investment as one of the four strategic missions in its socio-economic development strategy.

The Congress of the Party Committee of Hoa Binh province expressed the will, determination and development aspirations of the entire Party Committee and people in Hoa Binh province to reached the national average in economic development in Vietnam.

In 2021, the Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee of Hoa Binh province assigned departments, state agencies, and People's Committees of districts and towns to speed up the implementation of administrative procedures, remove obstacles and difficulties for investors. Particularly, the policy of site clearance and allocation of land for projects is considered the most important task. Access to land, site clearance is one of the most difficult tasks for investors, so the site clearance must first be done from the district government and the Secretary of the district-level Party Committee must be the head of site clearance boards of all projects.

The local authorities determined that opening the door to domestic and foreign investment (FDI) waves will be an important resource for Hoa Binh to create a rebound for the economy. However, the consistent view of the provincial government on attracting investment is to well filter projects to ensure green and sustainable development. Along with that, reputable investors must have vision, enthusiasm and long-term commitment to Hoa Binh.

Currently, the province has 7 industrial parks. including: Bo Trai Industrial Park, Luong Son Industrial Park, Mong Hoa Industrial Park, Yen Quang Industrial Park, Lac Thinh Industrial Park, and Nam Luong Son Industrial Park and Thanh Ha Industrial Park. In addition, there are 5 industrial clusters, attracting hundreds of investment projects and tens of thousands of local workers.

Hoa Binh's land fund is still large, the province's economic infrastructure is increasingly being perfected, the transport network is increasingly expanding, along with favorable policies are the factors to attract both domestic and foreign investors.

Particularly, the openness in investment mechanisms and policies will create a potential destination for long-term growth in capital flows. In the next period, the province will continue to promote the achieved results, at the same time seriously review its limitations and weaknesses, thereby proposing effective solutions.

The Party committee, government and people of Hoa Binh province continue to promote the great unity of ethnic groups, strongly renew thinking and actions, mobilize all resources to the maximum, create breakthroughs for rapid and sustainable development; improve the people's material and spiritual life, preserve and promote the national cultural identity, improve the quality of education and training; focus on building new countryside, urban culture, ensure national defence, security and order; strive for reaching the nation’s average development level by 2025 and becoming a developed province in the northern midland and mountainous region by 2030 an a developed province of Vietnam by 2050.

Quynh Nga