Removing difficulties for businesses and upgrading the infrastructuresystem to attract more investment to economic zones (EZs) and industrialparks (IPs) were among the highlights of a recent conference held inthe central province of Quang Tri.

Participants at the ninth conference of the Club of Industrial andEconomic Zone Management Boards in northern localities also madeproposals related to the completion of central and local state agenciesin charge of managing such zones.

Statistics showthat the country has in total 300 industrial parks (IPs), 18 coastaleconomic zones (EZ), and 28 border gate EZs, hosting about 5,000foreign-invested projects totalling more than 110 billion USD and nearly6,000 domestic projects valued at 970 trillion VND (46 billion USD).Northern provinces and cities from Thua Thien-Hue northward haveestablished more than 100 IPs and seven coastal EZs.

However, they also pointed out that although policies on IPs and EZsare relatively complete, they are not yet in synch, while investment ininfrastructure development has been limited. Attendees tabled measuresto speed up disbursement of investment in infrastructure systems for IPsand EZs.

Nguyen Duc Cuong, Chairman of the QuangTri People’s Committee, said over the past years, Quang Tri has paidmuch attention to the development of IPs and EZs. Currently, theprovince has one special trade zone and three IPs. The Lao Bao specialtrade area is a new model where many pilot preferential policies arebeing applied for the first time in the country, he said.

Quang Tri is focusing on the construction of the Cua Viet-Cua Tung seatourism site and the Southeast maritime EZ to make use of the East-WestEconomic Corridor, which is expected to open up new prospects in thelocal socio-economic development, he noted.-VNA