Build nests to welcome “eagles”, “filter” high-quality capital

Destination of billion USD FDI projects

After considering nearly 10 countries in Southeast Asia, LEGO has chosen Vietnam to build its sixth factory globally, and also its first carbon-neutral factory, with investment value more than 1.3 billion USD.

“First, Vietnam’s business environment and political stability are positive factors that make us choose to build our next factory. We also share a lot of the values ​​that the group is pursuing. with the Government of Vietnam, as the goal of sustainable development. It must be said that this is not a short-term investment, but an investment for the next generation. We will also create new jobs and train for the next generation. Vietnamese workers, because the job in the factory will require high skills”, said Mr. Preben Elnef – Vice President of LEGO Vietnam Factory.

LEGO builds a factory of more than 1.3 billion USD in Vietnam

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam currently has nearly 90 FDI projects with a scale of over 500 million USD. The scale is on an increasing trend. In 2021, a number of large corporations continue to expand their investment with additional capital of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Some promotion organizations said that more high-tech enterprises are interested in investing in Vietnam after the Government’s message of pursuing sustainable development…

According to Mr. HIRAI Shinji – Chief Representative of the Japan Trade Promotion Organization (JETRO) in Ho Chi Minh City, last year’s survey with businesses in Japan showed that Vietnam is the second most popular country in terms of popularity. investment, second only to the US. This is the first time Vietnam has surpassed China in this survey.

“In the past, Japanese businesses found Vietnam attractive thanks to cheap labor, but this mindset is changing. Japanese investors are interested in Vietnam’s growth potential and large market size. Vietnam is becoming more and more important. sustainable growth, the greater the opportunity for businesses,” said Mr. HIRAI Shinji.

Attracting FDI is a part, leaders of Binh Duong province said that local authorities need to connect domestic enterprises with foreign ones. Increase the ability to transfer and spread technology of the FDI sector to domestic enterprises.

“What we want is to connect domestic enterprises with foreign-invested enterprises. Only develop domestic enterprises, take advantage of foreign enterprises here to boldly develop domestic enterprises. then that is sustainable development”, said Mr. Mai Hung Dung – Vice Chairman of Binh Duong Provincial People’s Committee.

In 2021, FDI into Vietnam will still increase despite COVID-19

In 2021, when the pandemic is intense, foreign investment in Vietnam will still increase by more than 9% compared to the previous year. This year as of April 20, disbursed FDI also reached nearly 6 billion USD, up nearly 8% over the same period last year.

“Filter” of high-quality capital

FDI inflows are an important resource for the socio-economic development of our country. However, recently published summary reports show that the efficiency of FDI projects is still inadequate, requiring new solutions to soon improve the quality of this capital source.

A report from the Ministry of Finance shows that nearly 60% of FDI enterprises, equivalent to more than 14,100 enterprises, reported losses in 2020. Notably, some enterprises in the telecommunications and software sectors have increased revenue and scale. Large investment capital and expansion in scale but still reporting losses. According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, up to 80% of foreign enterprises in industrial parks use technology at an average level.

Experts say that it is not excluded that some businesses make real profits but report fake losses to avoid taxes. However, it is necessary to have a clear dissection analysis to avoid misjudging FDI enterprises suffering objective difficulties due to the pandemic in 2020.

In addition to business efficiency, some limitations of FDI projects were also pointed out by ministries and sectors such as low land use efficiency, 80% of FDI enterprises in industrial parks currently use technology only in normal.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment is drafting a draft to collect opinions on a specific set of criteria to select Vietnam’s first FDI (Artwork).

To overcome this, the Ministry of Planning and Investment is drafting a draft to collect opinions on a specific set of criteria for selecting Vietnam’s FDI for the first time. In which the criteria of high technology content, commitment to technology transfer … are of special interest to experts.

“We should not aim at the story of excessive incentives, but should aim for a friendly and cooperative governance environment, thereby promoting innovation of FDI enterprises. We aim to choose FDI with merit.” technology, then it is possible to create added value from FDI and promote growth in the coming time”, said Professor Nguyen Trong Hoai – UEH University.

The business community commented that the criteria should not be too rigid to ignore business investment opportunities.

“We think the set of criteria should ensure that not only large enterprises are attracted, but also medium-sized ones. This is an important issue because in Europe we have a lot of businesses that are both active in the industry. However, in general, I think the selection criteria are suitable for European businesses,” suggested Mr. Alain Cany – President of the European Business Association in Vietnam.

Besides upgrading the “filter” of FDI, experts believe that continuing to invest will improve Vietnam’s inherent weaknesses such as infrastructure, high logistics costs, and a lack of high-quality personnel. .. will determine the choice of foreign investors.

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