What are Chan May-Lang Co Economic Zone’s (EZ) development goals to become an important gateway for the East-West economic corridor?
Chan May-Lang Co EZ, located in Phu Loc district, covers 27,108 hectares and has a favourable geographical location situated between Hue and Danang. Chan May-Lang Co EZ is 36 kilometres from Phu Bai international airport, 32km from Danang international airport, near the ancient capital of Hue and Lang Co, one of the most beautiful bays in the world.
The zone has traffic benefits, connecting with the north-south route including national highway 1A, trans-Viet railroad and Chan May seaport, a gateway to the East Sea and the East-West corridor linking Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
The terrain diversity at Chan May-Lang Co is favourable for industrial production, services and tourism.
After six years of operations and considered one of 15 important coastal zones in Vietnam, has Chan May-Lang Co wooed investors?
Over time, along with mobilising capital for perfecting the infrastructure systems, Thua Thien-Hue province carries out numerous investment promotion activities and builds criteria for projects. As a result, many big domestic and foreign investors have surveyed investment opportunities and decided to invest in Chan May-Lang Co. Currently, there are 81 operating businesses with total legal capital of VND3.2 trillion ($153.5 million) in the zone, including 71 domestic firms and 10 foreign ones, creating jobs for 1,738 regular workers and 1,600 occasional workers.
In terms of projects, Chan May-Lang Co has attracted 34 projects with a combined registered capital of $2.28 billion, comprising of 10 foreign-invested projects capitalised at $1.3 billion and 24 domestic projects worth $968.5 million.
Large projects are counted such as Laguna tourism resort developed by Laguna Vietnam, a subsidiary of Singapore’s Banyan Tree Group with total investment of $875 million on 280 hectares. The first phase of this project is being carried out at $200 million and is slated for completion in June 2012. Another is a VND500 billion ($24 million) project which includes an expanded 50,000 cubic metre oil depot and a 30,000 DWT oil port developed by PVOil.
Other projects include the infrastructure development of Saigon-Chan May Industrial Park and non-tariffs zone at VND1.4 trillion ($67.3 million) on 658ha by Saigon Hue Investment, the $102 million Bai Chuoi tourism resort on 100ha by Singapore’s Cattigara Group and the $299 million Lap An resort golf course on 165ha by Lap An – a Vietnam-Denmark joint venture.
What fields is Chan May-Lang Co’s investment attraction focusing on?
We only select investors who are capable of implementing projects and in line with the zone and development orientations of the province. Between now and 2015, Chan May-Lang Co will focus on calling for investment in the fields of developing and trading infrastructure for industrial parks, non-tariffs areas, hi-tech parks, new urban areas.
We want industries such as electricity, electronics, high technology, auto and motor making and assembling, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and apparel.
We also want to see new projects in tourism (Bai Ca coastal tourism resort, Hoi Dua tourism resort and Bac Hai Van resort), education and training (Chan May technical vocational training school), transportation (expanding Chan May deepwater seaport), service sector (logistics, bonded warehouses, supermarkets and retail shops), and manufacturing of containers, lifting facilities and repairing vessels.
What incentive policies have been applied to attract investors, especially foreign ones?
Over the years, Thua Thien-Hue’s investment environment has changed considerably, becoming a reliable destination for investors. The province has trimmed administrative procedures in line with the government’s administrative reform Project 30, minimising time for executing administrative procedures, specifically, granting business registration certificates within two working days, granting investment certificates within five working days, appraising the grant of investment certificates within 10 days and granting incentive investment certificates within four working days.
Investors enjoy many special incentive policies when coming to Chan May-Lang Co, for example, corporate income tax at 10 per cent within 15 years, a four year corporate income tax exemption since there is taxable income and a corporate income tax reduction of 50 per cent in the nine following years. In terms of import tax, investors are exempted from import tax for equipment, machines, materials, transport vehicles and other goods used to implement their projects under the law on export-import taxes. In terms of personal income tax, investors enjoy a reduction of 50 per cent when directly working at Chan May-Lang Co EZ. Investors are also free from land rent in 11 years. In addition, all administrative procedures on investment, construction, land and environment at the EZ are executed quickly under a one-stop-shop mechanism.
How will Chan May-Lang Co operate in the coming time?
In 2011-2015, the zone targets to disburse VND22 trillion ($1.05 billion) of investment capital, to attract VND30-35 trillion ($1.4-1.7 billion) and make state budget revenues of VND1 trillion ($48 million) by 2015.
The zone tries to perfect infrastructure of some urban areas of Chan May new city and attract additional urban infrastructure investors. It will also put into operation the first phase of Laguna Hue project and complete the second and third phase in 2015, operate Bai Chuoi tourism resort and other tourism sites along Lang Co sea, perfect infrastructure of Saigon-Chan May and non-tariffs area, and boost investment promotion activities. In addition, it will work out projects calling for ODA and government bond capital and pull in investment capital in developing infrastructure under different forms.
What solutions will be taken to reach the above targets?
Chan May-Lang Co will mobilise all capital sources for essential technical-social infrastructure, strengthening investment promotion work, concentrating on site clearance, attaching special importance to vocational training, intensifying ecological environment protection and accelerating administrative reform.n