Hung Yen (VNA) 𒈔– The northern province of Hung Yen has taken drastic actions to improve its business and investment environment, and its efforts have paid off.

In the 2022 Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) rankings recently released by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the locality jumped 25 places, standing 14th among the 63 provinces and centrally-run cities nationwide, and fifth among the 11 in the Red River Delta – the highest-ever rank claimed by Hung Yen. Many of its sub-indexes improved considerably, including access to land (0.7 point and 36 places), informal charges (1.1 points and 40 places), proactivity (0.2 point and 17 places), and law and order (1.1 points and 33 places). This is the recognition of the business community for efforts made by the province’s whole political system to improve the business environment as well as the quality of economic management. Tran Quoc Van, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee, affirmed that the position is the fruit of efforts made by the whole political system to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with enterprises and help them address difficulties, and create the most favourable business and investment environment for them, together with great contributions of the business community in the context of the difficult domestic and international economic situations. In recent years, the province has also directed departments and localities to drastically reform administrative procedures, create an open investment environment, and reduce costs in order to increase investment attraction. It has stepped up investment promotion through diplomatic missions and foreign enterprises from countries and territories that have been making stable investments in the province; while preparing synchronous infrastructure in terms of transport, electricity, water, communications and ground, especially at industrial parks, to be ready to meet foreign investors’ needs. The province has to date attracted 2,145 valid investment projects, including 1,632 domestic and 513 foreign-invested ones, worth almost 310.9 trillion VND (13.2 billion USD) and more than 6.2 billion USD, respectively. Meanwhile, Hung Yen attracted 169.77 million USD in foreign investment in the first quarter of this year, making it one of the top 10 foreign investment destinations in Vietnam during the period. These projects have made an important contribution to the province’s economic growth, creating jobs, and ensuring a stable income for workers. Local industrial infrastructure is developing rapidly with eight out of the 17 planned industrial parks already operational and ready to welcome projects. Nine others are under construction at present. In the first quarter of 2023, Hung Yen continued to be one of the localities with high growth rates in the whole country and the Red River Delta. Its gross regional domestic product (GRDP) is estimated to increase by 8.14% over the same period last year, ranking 12th among 63 provinces and cities in the country and fifth among 11 localities in the Red River Delta region. In 2022, Hung Yen posted a growth rate of 12.8% in gross regional domestic product (GRDP), ranking first in the Red River Delta and fifth nationwide. The growth of each sector all surpassed the set target, with the index of industrial production up 10.4%, the trade and service value 19.45%, and the state budget revenue rising 2.63-fold from the target to reach the highest-ever level and place the province among the top 10 nationwide in this regard. Last year, per capita GDP increased over 16% from 2021 to 102.3 million VND (nearly 4,400 USD) while labour productivity stood at 196 million VND each worker, higher than the national average./.