INVESTMENT PROMOTION CONFERENCE
“HANOI 2020 – INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION”
SATURDAY, 27 JUNE 2020
On 27 June 2020, H.E. Dato’ Ambassador attended an Investment Promotion Conference with the theme “Hanoi 2020 – Investment and Development Cooperation”. The conference was organised by the Hanoi People’s Committee aim to boost the attraction of investment from domestic businesses and foreign direct investment (FDI) to revive Hanoi’s economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The conference was attended by the Prime Minister of Vietnam, government officials, representatives from the embassies, foreign investors, local and foreign chamber of commerce, and manage to attract over 1,000 domestic and international businesses to invest in the capital city of Vietnam.
- With the aim of a "green, cultural, civilized and modern" city, Hanoi is setting the objective to become a smart, creative and liveable city with dynamic development and high competitiveness. During the conference, Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee, Nguyen Duc Chung (Hanoi’s mayor) announced that the city would grant investment certificates to 229 projects, with a total capital of VND405.57 trillion (USD17.6 billion). These projects will be focusing on 25 industrial clusters involving social housing, three urban areas, tourism services, offices, socio-culture, finance and banking, urban infrastructure, and transportation infrastructure, among others. On this occasion, the municipal government and investors signed 38 memoranda of understanding (MoUs).
- In addition to the above objective, Hanoi is expected to enhance Vietnam’s economy with investment potentials in terms of agriculture and digital technology. The city has been chosen to be a pioneer in rebooting the economy with its 1.3% GDP growth, higher than the national average. Hanoi’s economy accounts for 16% of the country’s GDP and 19% of the national state budget revenue. Hanoi should strengthen soft skills training, especially in English to improve its quality of the graduates. It is necessary for the local businesses to actively connect with training institutions. Apart from this, the city is expected to connect with IT training schools.
- Mr. Ousmane Dione, World Bank's Country Director for Vietnam, opined that although the COVID-19 pandemic has left unpredictable consequences on people’s health and life, it has opened up opportunities for Hanoi, which has contained the pandemic remarkably well and has become a safe destination for multinational companies to relocate their production facilities. He believes that the relocation of investments by multinational investors will provide an excellent opportunity for Vietnam and Hanoi to attract foreign investment. In order to attract investments to Hanoi, he recommended that the municipal government needs to develop policies to encourage FDI through administrative reforms and human resources training.
- There is so much to learn following the successful convening of this conference. Malaysia, which is also doing a splendid job in the recovery process of the pandemic ought to take chances and organize similar programmes. Malaysia is much more superior in terms of labour force and our existing investment and trade packages should be able to compete with a fellow ASEAN neighbour. It is opportune for Malaysia’s economic entities to seize this moment in hopes of providing the nation its much needed post COVID-19 economic recovery.
Malawakil Hanoi
3 July 2020
