Nguyen Hoang Son confirmed that the province was targeting major projects in terms of investment capital and high technology from the United States and Europe.

“We will provide them with incentives in relation to land price and simplified procedures,” Son told reporters after the Trade and Investment Conference in Binh Duong that the province organized on Tuesday (22 Sep 2009) in collaboration with the U.S. consulate general in HCMC.

Son told during the tea break of the conference that he just led a mission to Germany and other countries in Europe to call for investors there to come to explore opportunities in the province. Son said Binh Duong would carry out more marketing activities and events at home and abroad like the conference in the province on Tuesday afternoon to further showcase the province’s advantages. “We want to attract foreign investors with advanced technology into (Binh Duong’s) industry and service areas,” Son said.

U.S. consul general in HCMC, Kenneth J. Fairfax, said the new wave of American investors showed that they were less likely to build shoes and T-shirt factories but those factories to produce electronics and assemble hi-tech products.

“That means you need to have good education, highly skilled labor and good infrastructure, and Binh Duong is actually working on that,” Fairfax said.

Son said Binh Duong had invested heavily in new modern industrial parks to lure new projects and was aimed at having 60% of its workforce trained by 2010. He said Binh Duong would not license polluting projects and those outside industrial parks to ensure environmental issues were better controlled.

The chairman also clarified the province would try to attract large-scale hi-tech projects in need of trained employees rather than projects that require a large number of unskilled workers.

Thomas Siebert of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Vietnam said most companies were looking for places where they were able to grow business… and Vietnam was offering a lot of great opportunities for this.

Binh Duong chairman Son said the province had attracted 1,820 foreign investment projects from 36 countries and territories with combined investment capital of USD12.8 billion, and U.S. investors had registered US$330 million for 74 of the projects in the province.