IPC photo: meeting with Chairman of National Assembly of Laos PDR
Between 10 April to 17 April 2010, Mr. Huynh Van Be, Member of the Central Party’s Committee and Secretary of the Provincial Party’s Committee led a delegation of Ben Tre province to pay a visit to Thailand and Laos. The aim of the visit is to promote investment and to find out the investment cooperation opportunities in the two countries of Thailand and Laos
In Thailand, Mr. Be and his Provincial official delegation paid an official working with Thai World and Thai Agri Food Public Company. This Group is currently operating in the field of agri - product processing and trading services, especially processing coconut-based products, canned products of fruit juice, rice processing and instant food. At present, Thai Group has a 12-million USD project to process coconut milk products and frozen food in Giao Long industry park of Ben Tre province. The factory of Thai Group is under construction and it will be put into operation in June 2010. Thai Group is so far expecting to expand his project to invest in processing more agri-products and it is also concerning to building a gas electricity plant to serve industrial parks in Ben Tre province. Mr. Be highly appreciated the investment of Thai group and he is expected the Group can expand investment in other sectors which bring mutual benefits for the two sides.
IPC photo: Leaders of Champasak and Ben Tre
In Laos, Mr. Be and his Delegation visited three provinces including Champasak, Savannakhet and Bolikhamsay provinces. In Champasak, Mr. Be worked with the Mr. Soukanh Mahalanth, the Secretary of Champasak Provincial Party’s Committee. The two sides exchanged the socio-eco development situation of each other and discussed priority sectors for cooperation. Champasak province is focusing on agricultural development and stressed that Ben Tre has a lot of experiences which can share to Champasak in this sector. The two Secretaries agreed to assign the Department of Planning and Investment of two provinces to specify cooperation projects. In Savannakhet, Mr. Be met Mr. Vilayvanh Phomkhe, the Secretary and Governor of Savan. The two sides also discussed the potentials and cooperation opportunities in agricultural sectors, specially fruit industry and cocoa. Savannakhet is very rich in natural resources and agricultural land. In Bilikhamsay, Mr. Be visited a coconut farm and contributed to the extensionists and farmers in irrigating coconut and controlling coconut beetle. On the occasion of traditional New year of Laos, the Ben Tre Delegation led by Mr. Be paid a courtesy visit to H.E Thongsing Thamavong, Politburo’s Member, the Chairman of National Assembly of Laos PDR. The visit of Ben Tre Delegation in Thailand and Laos opens a lot of opportunities to promote cooperation and investment in future.
Duy Nguyen
IPC photo: receiving Consul General of Japan.
On 09 March 2010, in Ben Tre province, Mr. Nguyen Thai Xay, Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee (PPC) of Ben Tre and some representatives of Department of Planning and Investment, Industrial Park Authority and IPC Ben Tre hosted to receive Mr. Mr. Mizuki Ikuo, Consul General of Japan in Ho Chi Minh City. The two sides exchanged some key issues regarding the development of Ben Tre and programmes funded by the Japanese Government in Viet Nam
One behalf of Ben Tre PPC, Mr. Xay informed shortly the social-eco development situation of Ben Tre province in 2009. Despite effected by the world finance and economic crisis, GDP of Ben Tre still grew up 7.23 percentage comparing with 2008. Total provincial export turnover obtained US$193 million and private investment increased up 45 percentage against 2008. Ben Tre is ranked the fifteenth position in Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). Regarding foreign direct investment, Ben Tre just has one Japanese investor (Furukawa – wire harness manufacture project in Giao Long IP) and one industrial net processing factory. In terms of official development assistance (ODA), Ben Tre was received some Japanese ODA projects (JBIC) to construct bridges, provincial roads and electricity network of Ben Tre. Total ODA funding is currently around VND90 billion. Japan also has two Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) to effectively support many progammes of education and health for Ben Tre since 1995 (Palate and Cleft Foundation and Support of Vietnam Children Association). In the meeting, Mr. Mizuki also informed about Japanese investment in Viet Nam and at present, Japan takes the number one in foreign direct investment. The Japanese Government has provided many ODA projects to Viet Nam. He also informed the Consulate General of Japan in Ho Chi Minh City would send a delegation to Ben Tre to work with the relevant agencies on grant project in health sector. The Consulate General will support approximately US$100,000 to provide health equipment and tools to Chau Thanh hospital. The PPC Chairman concluded that Ben Tre had many convenient conditions to attract further investment from Japan and he pledged to create favourable conditions to Japanese investors in Ben Tre. In terms of development assistance, Mr. Xay also requested the Japanese Consulate General pay more attention to climate change to Ben Tre.
Son Nguyen