Ninh Binh realises international economic integration opportunities

The provincial Board of International Integration has coordinated with related units to continuously popularize the benefits generated by international economic integration. In that effort, the province paid heed to promoting its potential and strengths in fields of industry, trade, traditional handicraft, and more.

 In addition, it has closely worked with domestic and foreign crews of TV channels and film companies to broadcast and introduce its tourism and economic potential. It has organized a host of get-togethers to introduce FTA's rules to local enterprises.

 Other measures to simplify administrative procedures and remove difficulties faced by enterprises have been implemented by the province as well. At the same time,the province has actively and constantly called for foreign investment, including from ODA and FDI sources.

 In 2018, the province granted investment licences to three projects with a total capital of over 40.965 million USD (951 billion VND) and received four NGO-run projects with a total value of 351,377 USD (812 million VND).

 In the first half of 2019, the province granted investment licences to 23 projects, an increase of 10 projects compared to the same period in 2018 with a total capital of nearly 3 trillion VND (29.5 million USD).

 Many operating foreign-invested projects have been contributing to boosting the province's industrial production growth. In the first six months of 2019 alone, the province's industrial production value reached over 32.7 trillion VND, posting a sharp rise of 31.3 percent compared to the same period last year.

 The province has strengthened the promotion of local products on e-commercial websites, aiming to seek partners and expand export markets.The efforts have been paid off as the province's export maintained its growth rate. In the first half of the year, total export turnover hit over 1 billion USD (23 trillion VND), up 40.5 percent from the same period last year.

 During the international economic integration process, the province's agriculture has shifted to meet market demand. As a result, the value of agricultural, forestry and fishery production in the first half of 2019 reached 4.9 trillion VND (211 million USD), up 2.7% over the same period.

 The locality has defined tourism as a spearheaded economy and focused all resouces to develop physical infrastructure in destinations and spots of interest to create the best conditions for visitors. As such the total number of tourists visiting the locality in the first six months of 2019 reached over 5.4 million, up 2.4% over the same period last year and tourism revenue hit nearly 2.4 trillion VND (60 million USD), posting a rise of 23.09 percent over the corresponding period in last year.

 Despite these achievements, the international economic integration process, however, has still had challenges. The importance of international economic integration has not been fully aware by some branches and localities. The effectiveness of some signed trade deals did not meet demand of the sides involved. The investment climate in fields of agriculture, rural areas and socio-cultural sector is unattractive, while the competitiveness of the local economy remains limited.

 In order to meet the requirements of globalization and international economic integration, the province's Board of International Integration would provide thorough support for enterprises in accordance with international commitments and real performance of local enterprises.

 It continues popularizing and raising awareness of agencies and businesses of international economic integration. Along with that, branches and sectors will effectively implement measures to boost exports, take advantages of opportunities created by FTA to attract investment into hi-tech and support industries.

 The province will work to build programs and projects to call for investment capital from ODA and FDI and support from NGOs.

It will continue to streamline administrative procedures, especially in the field of investment, customs, tax, land, import and export.

 Besides, the locality is determined to improve the investment climate in agriculture and rural areas, promote its tourism potentials on websites and the media, and build a personnel training plan to meet requirements of international economic integration.

 Translated by Nguyen Thuy