According to statistics of the Department of Planning and Investment and Industrial park Authority in 2009, Ben Tre granted 305 business certificates of establishing new companies and enterprises with total registered capital of VND 652 billion. In terms of foreign direct investment (FDI), Ben Tre also attracted five more new projects including the activated carbon manufacturing plant of PICA Group – France with total investment capital of US$5 million. This PICA owned Plant is located in Giao Long Industrial Park of Ben Tre with land rented area of 1,8 ha. The second project is animal feed processing plant owned by an American investor with total investment capital of US$1 million and rent one ha of land in Giao Long IP. The other FDI projects are the Hotel and Tourism one of New Zealand;

Agricultural goods business project of Sri-Lanka in Ben Tre City and one Shrimp raising project of China in Binh Dai district. In 2009, Viet World Company of Thailand also increased its investment capital from US$5.5 million to US$12 million. The Viet World Co,. Ltd is investing one more frozen food processing chain in Giao Long IP. It is expected that the agricultural processing plant of Viet World will be put into commercial operation in April, 2010. Total investment capital of FDI projects granted of Ben Tre in 2009 was around US$13 million. Regarding domestic investment, Ben Tre also attracted around VND1,200 billion, most local projects are invested in Giao Long and An Hiep Industrial parks. One of the most prominent projects is to process seafood of Huy Hoang Joint Stock Company located in An Hiep IP with total investment VND385 billion.

Accumulating to December 2009, Ben Tre has 3,488 companies and enterprises established with total registed capital of VND4,359 billion and 26 FDI project are still effective with total investment capital of US$175 million. Thailand is one of the leading investors in Ben Tre province with more than US$100 million invested in many sectors so far.

Son Nguyen