Rach Mieu Bridge is favorable condition for Ben Tre to integrate with the Mekong Delta

After Rach Mieu Bridge’s operation, the chances of attracting new investment in Ben Tre province increased significantly.
Rach Mieu Bridge is to facilitate the integration of Ben Tre with all of the Mekong Delta. At the inauguration of the Rach Mieu Bridge linking Tien River in pairs in January 2009, the leaders of Central, local and economists have generally assumed that, from now on, the chances of attracting new investment project in Ben Tre province will increase significantly.

According to the Management Board of Ben Tre industrial parks (IPs), in January 2009 the province's industrial parks have attracted three new projects. It is the processing factory of coconut products invested by the RDC ltd., co. (capital of 43 billion dong); processing aquatic products factory for export invested by the Food Processing Le Anh Ltd., co.  (capital of 45 billion dong) and pharmaceutical processing factory invested by the Pharmaceutical  Khang Minh Corporation ( total capital of 31 billion dong).

In addition, the Management Board of industrial parks in the province also received dozens of investors find investment opportunities, which had signed a memorandum of understanding for the other two projects.

According to the Ben Tre Department of Planning and Investment, in January 2009, there are 10 group of enterprises, which are local and foreign investors coming and finding investment opportunities in the province, in the including a number of projects attracted investors particularly.

Specifically, a South Korean investors came and found investment opportunities to build toy factory to export from Ben Tre Town, a French company intended to set up manufactoring and trading company of  charcoal from coconut shell, while a Chinese investor wanted to invest in the manufactoring of coir products only. Group of Ho Chi Minh City investors again explore investment opportunities to build seafood processing factories, residential areas, hospitals and so on.

Earlier, the Investment Promotion Centre in conjunction with the Management Board of Provincial Industrial Parks held a public seminar to promote investment in Ben Tre Province, attracting the participation of 83 companies, local and foreign investors.  Thereby, Ben Tre province has attracted four projects with total registered capital of 382.4 billion dong. Mr. Nguyen Truc Son, Director of Investment Promotion Center under the Ben Tre Department of Planning and Investment said that Rach Mieu Bridge helped enterprises in the province to make the dream of taking container trucks to the factory. However, according to Mr. Son, on the whole, building the bridge was not enough to attract investors, the province was focusing on many other preparatory work.

First of all, the clean land, planning industrial parks should be well-prepared, followed by a skilled workforce, utility services and other infrastructure such as electricity, road, logistic service and clean water must also meet the investors needs and finally the raw materials for manufactoring and processing must be developed in coordination concerns.

To prepare clean land to investors, Ben Tre province is inviting investment in the infrastructure business  of Giao Hoa A Industrial Parks (area of 270 ha) and An Hiep Industrial Park Phase 2 (120 ha) in Chau Thanh District with investment capital of about 90 milliion USD for both industrial. Ben Tre province is 46,000 ha of coconut material area and 4,000 ha of cocoa intercrop in coconut garden.
Ben Tre has the largest beach of clams, with an area of 15,000 hectares, concentrated in coastal areas of 3 districts of Binh Dai, Ba Tri and Thanh Phu, capable of mining up to 30,000 tons per year, fishing on the marine aquaculture has the potential to thrive.

Regarding human resource development, Ben Tre province has 69 vocational training institutions, the percentage of trained workers accounted for 36%. In addition, a large number of provincial employees are highly qualified to work in other provinces are ready to return home if there is a good policy to attract them.

"Rach Mieu Bridge linking Highway 60 to the eastern provinces like Tra Vinh, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu and so on. It  would be favorable to trade in Ben Tre with full integration of the Mekong Delta. In terms of geographical location, potential availability, Ben Tre is eligible to attract investors. The problem left is the investment environment and has good project for investors to choose, " Mr. Son said.