Seven provinces and cities in the north of Việt Nam discussed mechanisms to form the Northern Key Economic Region (NKEC) of the country.—  Photo enternews.vn

HẢI PHÒNG — Seven provinces and cities in the north of Việt Nam discussed mechanisms to form the Northern Key Economic Region (NKEC) of the country.

The first forum of the NKEC was organised by the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Business Forum Newspaper and the relating municipal departments of Planning and Investment in Hải Phòng City yesterday.

Spanning more than 15,000 sq.km, NKEC includes seven provinces and cities, Hà Nội, Hải Phòng, Quảng Ninh, Hải Dương, Hưng Yên, Vĩnh Phúc and Bắc Ninh.

As NKEC’s three pillars, Hà Nội, Quảng Ninh and Hải Phòng have three airports and 44 industrial parks that are home to many key industries such as cement, cars, electricity.

Nguyễn Hồng Long, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee for Enterprise Innovation and Development told the forum: "NKEC contributed nearly 32 per cent of GDP and 31 per cent of the national budget.”

Earlier, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc said together with maintaining the role of a political, economic, cultural and scientific centre for Việt Nam, the NKEC should develop as an another economic hub with breakthroughs that helps restructure the economy and foster growth.

The PM told NKEC to become the country’s hub of processing and manufacturing industries; hi-tech agriculture; information technology, tourism and other services and later become a trading centre of the region and the world.

Attracting the private sector, NKEC still needs much improvement

Most recently, the city of Hải Phòng agreed an investment project with VinFast manufacturing and trading complex in Vân Phong and Nghĩa Lộ communes, Cát Hải District.

Nguyễn Văn Thành, deputy chairman of Hải Phòng People's Committee said private groups such as Vingroup, Sungroup, Geleximco, FLC had so far invested VNĐ200 trillion (US$8.6 billion) in the city.

Next Hải Phòng, Hải Dương Province also received an investment project for an automobile assembly and manufacturing factory of Ford Vietnam Co., Ltd.

Hưng Yên Province also has been receiving huge capital inflows from real estate companies such as Vingroup, T&T Group, Hòa Phát.

In Quảng Ninh District, Sungroup has built and operated the first private airport of Việt Nam, Vân Đồn International Airport at the total investment of VNĐ7.4 trillion.

Seeing the potential of the NKEC, Long said: “It still relies mainly on the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector.”

He also added the remaining problem of the economic region included uneven development among localities in the region with low index of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI).

“There are two provinces in the top ten and five in the top 20 but there are also two provinces at the bottom of the list.”

According to the Planning and Investment Ministry, the growth rate of the service industry which is the motivation of NKEC’s development, was not sustainable.

It increased by 9.05 per cent in 2016 but only 7.54 per cent last year. Export growth in 2018 only increased by 20 per cent, lower than the rate of 31.2 per cent in 2017.

The forum aims to receive contributions, analysis and policy recommendations from leading economic experts, investment organisations, and the business community to develop solutions to strengthen the investment resources for NKEC. — VNS