HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City is giving the priority to luring new-generationforeign direct invest (FDI) in the fields of high technology and urbandevelopment, along with FDI attraction in the four main industries and twotraditional sectors.

According to Su Ngoc Anh, Directorof the municipal Department of Planning, if the city attracted only 3.46billion USD in 2016, the figure rose to 6.6 billion USD in 2017, a year-on-yearincrease of more than 90 percent, and 1.55 billion USD in the first four monthsof this year.

This is an encouraging resultfor the city’s economic development, Anh said, adding that the city’sproportion in the nation’s FDI attraction increased from 13 percent in 2016 to18.4 percent last year.

The city is exerting effortsto call for investment in 190 projects, focusing on the development of smartand innovative urban areas. Innovative urban areas which are calling forinvestment include District 2, District 9 and Thu Duc district. Ho Chi MinhCity expects the success of these areas will pave the way for the developmentof smart urban areas.

The city will also step upinvestment in hi-tech sectors to build modern urban areas such as automobile industry,support industry, environment technology and renewable energy.

Most of foreign investorshave shown their appreciation of and back for the city’s urban developmentefforts. A representative from the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnampledged to share experience in building smart cities in Milan and Genoa port,while the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) established the US-VietnamAssociation of Smart Cities.

To attract new-generation FDIeffectively and carry out development projects successfully, the municipalPeople’s Committee is taking drastic measures to improve the investmentenvironment, with attention paid to stepping up administrative procedurereform, simplifying or abolishing unnecessary procedures, and expanding theapplication of information technology in addressing administrative proceduresrelated to investment attraction.

Chairman of the committeeNguyen Thanh Phong said that the city pledges to solve businesses’ difficultiesin order to avoid hampering the goods circulation as well as putting burden onenterprises.

The time for tacklingprocedures involved in house and land asset property will be cut down from 57days to 14 days for organisations and businesses.

An inter-sectoral workinggroup will be formed with Chairman Phong acting as its head. The working group,the first of its kind in Vietnam, aims to assist the handling of all investmentprocedures until a project receives investment licence, with a goal of reducingat least 50 percent of processing time as regulated. It will also focus on thetwo big problems facing foreign investors: calculation of ground clearancecompensations and local authorities’ transfer of land for investors.-VNA