Haiphong welcomes golden opportunity to attract high-quality foreign investment flow

Haiphong welcomes golden opportunity to attract high-quality foreign investment flow

These times present an unprecedented opportunity for Vietnam to welcome a fresh wave of high-quality foreign investment flows in the wake of the upcoming enforcement of landmark deals and new-generation free trade agreements. The northern port city of Haiphong has spared no effort to seize the initiative by preparing its facilities, policies, and workforce.

At the end of May 2020, Germany’s Tesa, a special industrial adhesive tape manufacturer, has confirmed to invest $55 million into Haiphong. Tesa is a prime example of the “China + 1” production strategy adopted by multinationals, and shows how investment flows are drawn towards Vietnam on account of agreements like the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement or the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Haiphong Industrial College has signed a co-operation agreement with Japan’s Anabuki College Group in January 2019

With Haiphong’s “hard” and “soft” infrastructure being generally readied to fulfil the requirements of investors, while improvements in human resources have been a key factor encouraging investors to choose the province.

According to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Mai, president of the Vietnam Association of Foreign-Invested Enterprises, in order to receive the investment flow that is moving out of China, human resources is a key factor for success: high-quality labour will bring good investors such as Samsung or Intel, besides political stability, quality of facilities, and open and transparent policies.

Haiphong Economic Zone’s Board of Management has been actively discussing with representatives from Apple, a global tech giant. At the discussions, besides concerns over infrastructure, labour availability was also significantly emphasised. The EZ’s representatives have taken a proactive approach by requesting the investor to outline their HR requirements so that they can co-ordinate with relevant authorised agencies, universities, and colleges to provide intensive training in the most relevant skills, as well as begin recruitment even while students are in the middle of their studies or prior to their graduation.

Availability of high-quality labour

The Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) Ranking 2019 published in early May indicated that enterprises highly appreciated Haiphong city's training and education policies, ranking it on top of the nation with 8.24 point. This component index witnessed the highest level of satisfaction from local companies since 2017.

For years, a number of industrial zone developers have been taking the initiative in supporting secondary investors not only with legal and administrative issues and factory construction but also in HR recruitment in order to ensure the prompt operation of their factories.

Sao Do Investment Group always focuses on training to improve the quality of its staff for quality improvement of the labourers to meet investors’ demands

From the developer's perspective, Nguyen Thanh Phuong, general director of Sao Do Group, primary investor of Nam Dinh Vu Industrial Park, commented, “Currently, Vietnam witnesses a golden opportunity to welcome a new wave of high-quality foreign investment. The infrastructure, policies, and legal corridor of Vietnam are generally adequate but need constant improvement.

“The quality of HR is not in fact identical among municipalities. Haiphong has a great advantage in this regard, in addition to transportation infrastructure, social utilities, and industrial zones being among the top of country."

During 2015-2020 when the port city welcomed a record volume of capital-intensive billion-dollar investment projects, employment in city-based industrial zones (IZs) and economic zones (EZs) has jumped sharply. In 2015, there were about 48,500 Vietnamese workers in these IZs and EZs. By the end of May 2020, this figure has risen to 133,000, by 2.7 times. The average monthly income of workers had doubled in five years from VND4.85 million ($210) to VND10.5 million ($460).

Several industries are in high demand such as IT, accounting, agriculture, and commerce, automotive technology, driver training, hospitality, welding, mechatronics, and electrical engineering, among others. Especially, some vocational and training institutions are interested in investing in key occupations.

International co-operation in training highly skilled personnel is extremely appreciated by Haiphong city. Up to now, there have been 20 foreign-invested projects in the city related to vocational education. The training institutions have been proactively implementing and receiving technical support from experts under diverse programmes funded by international organisations like the ADB and volunteer specialists. As a result, many big investors in the field of high-tech such as LG and Vinfast are operating smoothly their factories in Haiphong, with a steady and stable labour supply.

VIR