Dong Nai is entering a new chapter of development, dictated by higher demands for competitiveness, governance quality, and the ability to attract investment capital inflows. The municipality is strategically positioning itself to draw an increasing number of enterprises to establish operations, invest, and engage in the import-export and logistics sectors.

A Dong Nai-based enterprise participates in a trade matchmaking program organized by the Provincial People's Committee (now Dong Nai City) in November 2025. Photo: Vuong The

Consequently, engineering a streamlined, transparent policy mechanism and foster an investor-friendly ecosystem are viewed as the "ultimate key" for Dong Nai to catalyze a powerful leap forward for its economy.

Investors Prioritize Swift Administrative Processing

According to economic experts, corporate investors today look beyond mere tax incentives or land rental discounts; their primary focuses are the velocity of administrative processing, governmental transparency, and the state's capacity to co-navigate and resolve bottlenecks. These are also the deterministic factors for long-term investor retention.

Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy Director General of the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, assessed that Dong Nai possesses immense developmental advantages, particularly regarding its aggressively funded infrastructure. However, to fully capitalize on these windfalls, the locality must synchronously develop its hard, soft, and digital infrastructure—spanning from transport networks, warehousing, and inland container depots (ICDs) to data management and supply chain connectivity. This comprehensive overhaul is the ultimate solution to anchor enterprises to the locality for their import-export operations.

The business community highly anticipates that the implementation of regulatory frameworks regarding tax and customs policies will be synchronized and unified across jurisdictions. Furthermore, they expect targeted policy mechanisms to support and facilitate small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during their investment journeys in Dong Nai.

Echoing this sentiment, Mr. Vu Ngoc Long, Director of the Dong Nai Department of Industry and Trade, shared: "Through bilateral dialogues, enterprises expressed total readiness to process administrative procedures locally, provided that operational convenience is guaranteed." According to Mr. Long, businesses are hypersensitive to production and operating costs, meaning they will inevitably gravitate toward jurisdictions offering superior logistical convenience. Consequently, real-time policy updates, expedited bureaucratic processing, and timely bottleneck clearances are highly prized by the corporate sector.

Sharing his perspective, Mr. Dang Van Diem, Chairman of the Dong Nai Business Federation and Director General of Thong Quan Joint Stock Company (headquartered in Tran Bien Ward), noted that his firm specializes in providing logistics and import-export services to both domestic and foreign partners. Through engagements with foreign clients, enterprises showed high readiness to route their freight and import-export customs procedures directly through Dong Nai if bureaucratic barriers were further minimized. "Several large-scale importers of raw materials and heavy equipment currently clear customs outside the locality. Therefore, meeting their specific logistical and administrative demands will substantially boost the city’s budget revenue," Mr. Diem analyzed.

Architecting a Friction-Free Investment Climate

In recent months, Dong Nai has aggressively accelerated its administrative reforms, substantially shortening the processing timeline for investment, construction, and land-use dossiers. A vast array of procedures have migrated online, yielding significant time and cost savings for enterprises. The city also hosts routine executive-investor dialogues to actively listen to feedback and dismantle operational hurdles hindering production and business.

Specifically in the customs arena, the Regional Customs Department No. XVIII disclosed that the unit is spearheading digital transformation intertwined with bureaucratic simplification to modernize management and grease the wheels for import-export flows. Multiple digital platforms—such as the Customs-Enterprise Information Exchange System and an AI-integrated Zalo Official Account providing 24/7 automated legal and procedural troubleshooting—are being deployed to curb processing timelines and transit costs for businesses. Furthermore, Customs Department No. XVIII consistently maintains a 100% automated clearance rate within 1 to 3 seconds for "Green Lane" (low-risk) declarations, while deploying personnel to clear critical cargo during weekends and public holidays.

According to Mr. Le Thanh Van, Deputy Director of Regional Customs Department No. XVIII, Dong Nai houses the mega-scale Phuoc An Port, which holds the structural capacity to attract global shipping lines and major trading hubs. However, because the port has only recently commenced operations, certain international maritime certifications are still pending. Customs Department No. XVIII will continue to collaborate with Phuoc An Port authorities and relevant regulatory bodies to fast-track these international credentials. Once officially recognized and listed on global maritime routing networks, the port will seamlessly draw top-tier shipping lines to clear customs locally.

Dong Nai has now solidified its position as Vietnam's 7th direct-controlled municipality. Against this backdrop, unclogging institutional, procedural, and resource bottlenecks serves as a prerequisite for enterprises to achieve rapid, robust, and sustainable growth. The city administration is shifting from merely listening to delivering concrete, actionable interventions, treating the corporate community as the core vanguard of the economy.

Mr. Nguyen Kim Long, Member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee and Permanent Vice Chairman of the Municipal People's Committee, affirmed: "Dong Nai is aggressively pushing the envelope on administrative reforms, reducing dossier processing times, expanding online public services, and intensifying institutional dialogues with enterprises. Nevertheless, within our governance and corporate support matrix, systemic inconsistencies persist across certain sectors. Therefore, the city's most pressing mandate is to architect a highly favorable ecosystem to pull enterprises back to invest, conduct business, and file their tax and customs declarations locally to fuel aggregate growth. A transparent investment climate, a proactive government, and flexible policy mechanisms will unlock additional resources, laying a rock-solid foundation for the city’s sustainable development.

Vương Thế

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/