Of the above total, $852.44 million has been disbursed, making up 44.4 per cent. 191 of the projects are from domestic investors with registered capital of $1.71 billion and disbursed of $681.12 million.

The other 23 are FDI projects with total registered capital of $203.57 million and disbursed capital of $171.31 million. The disbursement rate of foreign projects is higher, at 84.15 per cent, compared to 39.7 per cent for domestic projects.

The projects employ 31,726 people, including 22,976 full-time employees and 8.750 seasonal workers. In 2014 they are expected to earn a combined revenue of $1.37 billion, up 8 per cent on-year. Of this, revenue from industry totaled $1 billion, service $371.6 million and export $582.5 million.

In recent years, attracting investment to Can Tho has been difficult to the global and domestic economic slowdown and also the lack of incentives offered by the province and its complicated administrative procedures.

“Specifically, firms in the field of industrial park infrastructure no longer receive corporate income tax incentives. Firms investing in Can Tho no longer receive locality-specific incentives, only those related to field or product. Meanwhile, administrative procedures are actually becoming less convenient,” said Can Tho Municipal Export Processing and Industrial Zone Management Authority (CEPIZA) chief Vo Thanh Hung.

Can Tho is regarded as having great potential for investment as it is a key traffic hub of Vietnam. In the near future the province plans to focus on infrastructure, including that in industrial parks, and also on training human resources.

In the first 10 months of 2014, Can Tho attracted five new projects worth $48 million and had another 14 existing projects increase their capital by a total $6.8 million, coming to $54 million, 78.3 per cent of the year’s target.