HCMC – Entrepreneurs in HCMC have invested in 782 projects in 13 provinces in the Mekong Delta with total pledged capital of VND199 trillion since 2000, HCMC chairman Le Hoang Quan said on Monday.
HCMC invests VND199 trillion in Mekong Delta
By Ngoc Hung - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC chairman Le Hoang Quan addresses the meeting to review economic ties between the city and the Mekong Delta - Photo: Ngoc Hung HCMC – Entrepreneurs in HCMC have invested in 782 projects in 13 provinces in the Mekong Delta with total pledged capital of VND199 trillion since 2000, HCMC chairman Le Hoang Quan said on Monday.
Chairman Quan told a review meeting held here on Monday that much of the invested capital had been poured into industrial zone development and foodstuff and seafood processing facilities. He said that in the coming time, HCMC would keep investing in the delta, and that transportation and infrastructure remained the top priorities for investment.
According to the HCMC Department of Planning and Investment, Kien Giang and Long An provinces took the lion’s share of HCMC investments, with 103 and 420 projects worth VND88.4 trillion and VND60 trillion respectively. Meanwhile, Ben Tre Province has attracted only eight projects worth VND365 billion.
HCMC-based companies have set up numerous infrastructure facilities in the Mekong Delta, including commercial centers, supermarkets, food and foodstuff and seafood processing plants, residential complexes, and tourist amusement parks among others.
However, as site clearance and project investment preparation were quite costly and traffic system was underdeveloped, the Mekong Delta is not so attractive to HCMC investors as Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, or Tay Ninh Province.
Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director of the city’s Department of Planning and Investment, said the high site clearance cost had cut into the delta’s competitiveness. The site clearance expense there averages out at VND8 billion per hectare of industrial land in Long An Province and VND5 billion in Can Tho City.
According to Minh, the workforce in the Delta is abundant but low in quality and knowledge. Laborers there mostly work as unskilled workers in the fields of garment, footwear, and aquaculture processing while advanced industries are thirsty of labor.
At present, the Mekong Delta has 151 industrial zones including 26 ones approved by the Government, mainly in Long An Province and Can Tho City. These industrial zones have attracted a little over US$1 billion of foreign direct investment and VND15.8 trillion of local investment.