Hanoi’s economy, especially tourism and investment, is expected to gain big benefits from the hosting of the DPRK-US Summit, which is catching attention worldwide.
Hanoi’s Hoa Lac High-tech Park plans to promote FDI attraction in 2019
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“This is a great opportunity for Hanoi to present itself to foreign investors as a city with political stability and good investment environment. It will contribute to promoting the city as an attractive and safe destination for tourism and investment,” Toan said.
“Through the event, investors will look at the capital city as an appealing destination where they can come and do business,” Toan added.
In addition, Toan said, the event will help enhance ties with the US, which will pay the way for Vietnam, especially Hanoi, to lure more American investors, whose investment in Vietnam remains modest.
According to Toan, potential from American investors remains huge as they pour some US$100 billion abroad yearly, but Vietnam receives only less than US$1 billion.
“With the position as the capital city of Vietnam and advantages of high-quality workforce, Hanoi has advantages in luring foreign investment in high-tech and tourism industries,” Toan explained.
Toan forecast FDI to the capital will keep rising significantly next time, suggesting the city should continue focusing on attracting high-quality foreign inflows.
Sharing the same viewpoint, Luong Hoai Nam from the Tourism Advisory Board said the event is a golden opportunity for the tourism industry of Vietnam in general and Hanoi in particular to showcase its image to billions of people around the world, who are interested in the worldwide political event of the year, and make a leap.
Measures for more attractive
According to Toan, Hanoi has gained impressive results in FDI attraction in recent years. After luring US$7.5 billion of FDI capital into 616 projects last year, the city continued to lead 44 provinces and cities nationwide in receiving FDI in the first two months of this year with US$4 billion, or 47.3 percent of the country’s total FDI.
Toan attributed the success to the city’s efforts in improving investment and business environment to ease investors and firms in the past years.
“Hanoi's Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) increased 3.97 points, from 60.74 points to 61.71 points, ranking 13th out of 63 provinces and cities,” he said.
In addition, the capital city has been actively in investment promotion activities, Toan said, adding the municipal authority has also organized regular talks with investors, as well as welcoming suggestions through diversified channels including the foreign investment agencies, ambassadors, trade counselors and business associations, which were highly hailed by investors.
However, to better attract foreign investors, especially the world's leading multinational corporations from the US and the EU, Toan suggested Hanoi’s authority to enhance transparency as the corporations often require a transparent and consistent investment and legal environment to ensure a healthy competition.
Meanwhile, to lure more foreign tourists, Nam suggested further opening up the visa regime for foreign tourists to make the hospitality industry more attractive.
Vietnam’s visa policy has been considered a bottleneck of tourism. The complicated procedures and visa costs make Vietnam less attractive for foreigners than neighboring countries.
“Currently, Vietnam offers visa waivers to visitors from only 24 countries including ASEAN co-members. Meanwhile, Indonesia grants visa-free travel to 169 countries and the figure for Singapore is 157 nationalities, Malaysia 155 and Thailand 61,” Nam said.
In addition, it is also necessary to have more airlines to increase choice for tourists and reduce airfare as Vietnam has only 4 airlines, compared with 13 of Thailand.
