HCM City (VNA) – Can Tho last month issued a licence to the Republic of Korea’s Tae Kwang Vina Industrial for setting up a shoe production plant in its 2B Hung Phu Industria🎀l Par๊k.

At over 171 million USD, it is the Mekong Delta city’s biggest ever foreign project, chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Vo Thanh Thong said. Many investors from Japan, the RoK and other countries have come to explore the city’s investment environment and many have sought to invest, he said. “The city will issue licences for some new FDI projects in the coming time.” The city would continue to make efforts to improve its investment environment to facilitate smooth business operations, he said. It prioritised investment in electronics, garment and textile, agricultural machinery and supporting industries, production and processing of hi-tech agri and fisheries products, transport and tourism infrastructure, logistics, industrial parks, IT zones, urban areas, hospitals, and international schools, he added. According to its Department of Planning and Investment, the city attracted seven FDI projects last year with a total registered capital of 19.1 million USD. In seeking foreign investment, the city has focused on money instead of quality, and it plans to change this. The city has so far attracted FDI worth more than 20.08 trillion VND (900.7 million USD), a quarter of all business investment. Most of the investors are from Asian economies like the RoK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Taiwan, with western countries like the US, Germany and France not having a major presence. Many of the projects were small in scale and use outdated technologies, and with little collaboration between large foreign firms and their domestic counterparts, the occurrence of technology transfer is rare. The city seeks to improve its investment promotion efforts to attract more quality foreign projects.-VNA