Bac Kan Province is ripe for investment

The northeastern mountainous province of Bac Kan launched a series of first-time activities, including an investment promotion conference, a farm produce promotion event, a tourism promotion program, and the Ba Be–Bac Kan Tourist Week.

Great natural advantages

Bac Kan Province is renowned for its farm produce including the Khau Nua Lech Ngan Son sticky rice and Cho Don ordinary rice (certified by the National Office of Intellectual Property); arrow-root vermicelli, orange, mandarin orange, and seedless persimmon that have been certified in terms of geographical indications; and taro and wax gourd.

Bac Kan is also famous for its 10,000-hectare Ba Be National Park that has been recognized as an ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Heritage Garden by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The park’s Ba Be Lake has been classified as a special national site, one of the world’s 20 largest natural freshwater lakes, the world’s 1,938th Ramsar site, and Vietnam’s third Ramsar site. NIKKEN Japan has provided planning consultancy for Ba Be Lake to 2030. The lake is the highlight of Bac Kan tourism development.

Bac Kan has plentiful material resources for the wood processing industry and forest economy development. Although mineral deposits in the province are scattered, they can supply large amounts of raw materials for lead, zinc, iron and industrial stone production industries.

Connectivity needed

Although it has the great potential, Bac Kan is still a poor province with a low provincial competitiveness index (PCI). In 2016, the province reached a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.3 percent, but its farm produce did not carve out a firm market niche despite its high quality.

Aiming to boost investment and tourism in particular, and socioeconomic development in general, Bac Kan launched a chain of activities to introduce its potential, advantages, investment opportunities and incentive policies in the fields of agriculture, forestry, tourism, urban infrastructure, support industries, industrial park infrastructure, among others.

Ly Thai Hai, Chairman of the Bac Kan Province People’s Committee, said the province will implement many solutions to support investors, focusing on administrative reform and investment environment improvement. The province will also set aside land for investors to develop agricultural and forestry production projects and adopt other preferential policies to assist businesses to promote products/services, and approach preferential credit.

In the presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, provincial leaders granted investment commitment certificates worth VND7.6 trillion to investors and handed investment decisions to 10 projects worth an estimated VND1 trillion.

Thanh Tam (VEN)