Thai Nguyen (VNA) – With 131 operating foreign direct investment(FDI) projects valued at 7.29 billion USD, Thai Nguyen province has become oneof the leading destinations for foreign investors in the northern mountainous region.

According to statistics from the provincial Department of Planning andInvestment, the flow of FDI into Thai Nguyen began to accelerate in 2012. In particular,when Samsung Group from the Republic of Korea started its project in thehigh-tech complex in the Yen Binh industrial zone in Pho Yen town in 2013, ThaiNguyen jumped to the first place among 63 cities and provinces nationwide inFDI attraction. In that year, the province absorbed more than 3.4 billion USD in22 newly-licensed projects.

Thanks to the spillover effect of theSamsung project, total FDI in Thai Nguyen during 2012-2017 rose 70 timescompared to the 1993-2012 period.

General Director of Samsung Electronics Vietnam Shin Won-Hwan said at a recentinvestment promotion conference that strong support from the VietnameseGovernment and abundant supply of labourers coupled with the good will of theprovince’s administration were the reasons why the group chose Thai Nguyen for itscomplex.

The foreign-invested sector has contributed to Thai Nguyen province’s economic developmentin the past years, with the gross regional domestic product (GRDP) expanding byan annual rate of over 12 percent, higher than the national average. In onlythree years, from 2015-2017, FDI firms contributed more than 5.3 trillion VNDto the province’s budget.

In addition, Thai Nguyen is among the few northern mountainous localitieshaving export revenue reaching billions of USD. In 2017 alone, the provinceraked in 25 billion USD from exports, a year-on-year increase of 30 percent.

Also, the FDI projects have created stable jobs for local workers and those inneighbouring provinces. Currently, more than 112,000 people working at FDIfirms as compared to 10,200 in 2013.

Moreover, FDI projects have helped the province shift its industrial structurefrom metallurgy and mining to high-tech and support industries. In the recentfive years, local industrial production grew at over 80 percent per year.

Director of the provincial Department of Planning and Investment Hoang ThaiCuong said that Thai Nguyen has been praised for its effective strategy to lureFDI from the RoK and some other foreign countries and territories like Japan, Singapore, andTaiwan (China).

However, the province is advised to work toattract more investments from European and American countries.-VNA