Chan May – Lang Co Economic Zone (EZ) has a defined geographical boundary, including Lang Co town and LocThuy, LocTien and LocVinh communes of Phu Loc District, ThuaThien – Hue Province. The North and Northeast borders on the East Sea, the South is next to Da Nang city, the West is adjacent to Loc Binh commune, Loc Tri Commune (Phu Loc District), with an area of 27.108 ha.
Infrastructure development
In 2006, the Prime Minister decided to promulgate the operation regulation of Chan May – Lang Co EZ, but it took more than 6 years later, in November 2012, the world-class Resort complex Laguna Lang Co has just been completed and put into operation. At that time, the project attracted a lot of attention from investors because of certain reasons. In the middle of the real estate crisis, there was a world-class project with a scale of 280 hectares (03 km of surrounding coast), registered capital of up to 875 million USD on the pristine coastal area, white sand, surrounded by green patches of towering hills, like a sleeping princess.
The Laguna Lang Co resort project has created a major breakthrough, a widespread impetus, making Lang Co of ThuaThien Hue Province a top tourism destination not to be missed when tourists coming to Vietnam. The number of 333.000 international visitors and more than 900.000 domestic visitors has spoke up of the “attraction” of Lang Co tourism. With the expansion and addition of the Casino project to increase the investment scale up to 2 billion USD for the complex, Banyan Tree Group (Singapore) has officially become one of the largest foreign investors, making a positive contribution to Vietnam’s FDI in 2018.
The above story showed us the potential attraction of Chan May – Lang Co EZ which is getting bigger and bigger, and has a pervasive influence as well. One of the important and core factors that helps to “awaken” and exploit the EZ’ potentials effectively is its infrastructure that is constantly developing and perfecting to boost investment attraction.
In addition to the upgraded and expanded transportation system, especially the seaport, the national grid has also connected to every household in the area. In July 2019, Chan May – Lang Co EZ continued to complete and put projects on water drainage, wastewater treatment for industrial parks and non-tariff areas into use. The construction progress of Chan May port breakwater and the eastern road project of Lap An lagoon has been continuously accelerated.
Especially, Saigon – Chan May Industrial Park and Non – tariff Area is one of the leading and key projects on infrastructure construction and business of Saigon – Hue Investment Join Stock Company (SGH) with registered capital is nearly 2,600 billion VND, 659 hectares of land use area has also been completed; major roads have been invested, technical infrastructure has been available to welcome investors. This is considered as a new foundation and impetus for rapid and sustainable development, the competitive advantage of Chan May – Lang Co EZ as compared to neighboring areas.
Up to now, SGH has attracted many foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises to build factories and put into operation. The most outstanding is the Billion Max Vietnam Export Processing Factory (from Hongkong) with an investment of 15 million USD and land area of 10.73 hectares. The project implementation schedule is in line with the plan. Besides, there is also the Sunjin AT&C Vina Textile Factory project (USA) with total investment of 8,5 million USD and used land of 4 hectares; Nakamoto Packs Factory Project (Japan) with the scale of 12 million USD and used land area of 5 hectares.
With the orientation of being an “extended arm” and an effective assistant to the Management Board of Economic and Industrial Park of Thua Thien Hue province, SGH is committed to becoming a pioneer in attracting inward investments (focusing FDI) thanks to the reputation of synchronous, modern and high quality infrastructure inside the EZ. In addition to financial capacity, wealth of experiences in industrial park infrastructure development throughout the regions and provinces of Vietnam, the company owns a team of experienced, skilled and specialized employees not only timely and effective supporting for investors when implementing the project, but also acting as a feedback channel for implementing policies to improve and better the investment environment of local governments. In 2020, SGH plans to focus efforts on promoting many investment projects with a total registered capital of more than 100 million USD.
Labor resources
Attractive investment environment needs to converge at the same time many factors such as development infrastructure, attractive incentives and support policies, stable politics and satisfactory human resources (both in terms of quality and quantity).
With the infrastructure system developing quickly and completely, increasing the level of traffic connection with big cities and urban – commercial centers; located near the airport system (especially Danang International airport) and the seaport (Tien Sa, Chan May ports are being invested to upgrade to soon effectively exploit container services …); scarcity, shortage of land fund for construction and expansion of industrial zones in the North, the South and the surrounding areas have created the “Natural weather and favorable conditions” for the breakthrough and shine of Chan May – Lang Co EZ in the coming time. However, besides many favorable factors, the shortage of human resources and labor for investment projects is becoming a problem that needs to have a good “solution” soon to ensure sustainable development and Comprehensive EZ.
As informed by the Management Board of Economic and Industrial Zones of ThuaThien Hue province, currently Chan May – Lang Co EZ has attracted 44 investment projects with total capital of more than 76 trillion VND. Regarding tourism, there are 03 major projects that have been deployed and continued to new stages such as Laguna Lang Co resort, Mediterranean Tourism Area (including 26 Villas are about to be put into operation), Minh Vien International Tourism Area (expected to put into operation phase 1in June 2020). These only three projects need estimately 1,000 workers, both skilled and unskilled ones for the next 1 to 2 years.
In order to meet the quickly-developing needs of Chan May – Lang Co EZ, the infrastructure for auxiliary services and training universal and qualified human resources has not yet been met. Newly-built factories and other projects have some difficulty in recruiting staff in terms of quantity and quality. Typically, being fully operational when finishing construction in Quarter II/202, the Billion Max VEPF project will need to recruit up to 5,000 – 6,000 workers. In addition, there are still missing services for management in the EZ, foreign experts working here need a synchronized system of supermarkets, banks, accommodations, etc….Therefore, ThuaThien Hue People’s Committee should pay more attention to calling for investment in infrastructure development and public services, building new urban – housing areas in order to increase the population density of the locality, encouraging banks and logistics companies open their branches in Chan May – Lang Co EZ; building vocational schools in the area of EZ to promptly train laborers for factories in industrial parks.
According to the Laguna Lang Co’s Human Resources (HR) manager, Laguna needs to recruit more than 100 employees each year, both professional and unskilled ones. When phase 2 of the project put into operation, at least 1,000 more workers can be required to meet needs of the investor. Laguna’s HR strategy is to prioritize the recruitment of local laborers. The goal is not only to improve the efficiency of its business and investment activities, but also to create a stable source of income contributing to improve the living standards of local people.
“Recently, the District People’s Committee has worked directly with communes and towns in the area to re-confirm the list of labor-age young people working in other localities (including provinces and cities as HCMC, Binh Duong, etc), thereby grasping the willingness of them and their families classified by profession, training level, need, etc; as well as motivating them return to their hometowns to work after Tet holiday 2020”, Mr. Nguyen Van Manh – Chairman of the People’s Committee said.
Vietnam is facing a great opportunity with a series of bilateral and multilateral FTAs on Investment and Free Trade signed, shifting strong investments of large corporations or groups, multinational companies (TNCs) as a result of trade conflicts between major countries.
Accordingly, once Chan May seaport is completely upgraded and expanded (for container services), together with other available potentials and advantages, Chan May – Lang Co EZ has prospects to become a “bright spot” on the FDI and Investment maps of the Central Coast region in particular and Vietnam in general.
To effectively exploit this huge opportunity, Lang Co – Chan May EZ needs a long–term and sustainable development strategy in the new period to proactively welcome new waves of domestic and foreign investment; continuing to drastically improve the business investment environment; speeding up the construction of key and strategic infrastructures, enhancing vocational training, creating a supply of high-quality laborers; promoting attraction of logistics services, including industrial supply chains and supporting services; especially strengthening the cooperation and coordination with localities, economic zones in the region and the regional investment promotion agency to develop and implement focused and key investment promotion activities, avoiding overlaps and reaching efficiency.
Finally, there is a need for close coordination in the State management of investment projects in the area to ensure economic – social – environmental efficiency, in accordance with the master plans and law regulations.
Phuoc An – IPCC
* This article useed references from the Foreign Investment Agency – Ministry of Planning and Investmen and the People’s Committee of ThuaThien Hue Province.