Though coastal economic zones were created to stimulate local economies, they have fallen short of expectations over the last decade.
Few economic zones have met their expectations
The Ministry of Industry and Trade held a meeting in the central province of Quang Nam on August 27 to review investment in coastal economic zones nationwide, as well as to look into ways to spur further investment. There were officials from 18 coastal cities and provinces in attendance.
According to Vu Dai Thang, Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Department of Economic Zones Management, coastal economic zones are an important part of the Government\'s plan for development, however they have not met set targets.
The main reason for this is substandard infrastructure which does not meet up to regulations, Thang explained.
Not only have localities found it difficult to attract investment in coastal economic zones, the pace of construction for many of them has lagged far behind schedule.
Other problems they\'ve faced have been a lack of coordination and interaction between the zones themselves, as well as a lack of human resources, he added.
Dr. Tran Dinh Thien said that the failure of coastal economic zones to attract investment capital is largely due to so many of them having been developed in these coastal areas, which also put a strain on natural resources and hindered further development.
Many experts at the meeting expressed the idea that overlaps in the management in management over economic zones - specifically between local authorities and the economic zones\' management boards - have cause problems with environmental assessments, labour management and land usage.
The Minister of Industry and Trade, Bui Quang Vinh, promised that he would include these ideas in a report on investment in economic zones over the past 10 years to be submitted to the Government.
Vinh called for more attention to resource management, development potential and national interests before allowing more economic zones to be developed.
To date, Vietnam has 15 coastal economic zone nationwide, including 2 in the Red River Delta and 10 in the central region. The other three are located in the south.
The Government has recently approved the construction of three more economic zones in Thai Binh, Nam Dinh and Quang Tri provinces in it\'s development plan to 2020.
Investment in infrastructure in these economic zones has reached nearly VND170 trillion (USD8.15 billion). This includes VND40 trillion (USD1.91 billion) from local sources, the rest coming from foreign investment.
So far, in total, these economic zones have attracted around 130 FDI projects, with capital of over USD25 billion, and 650 domestic investment projects with a total value of nearly VND537 trillion (USD25.77 billion).
Some of the largest of these are Nghi Son, Vung Ang, and Dung Quat.
