Hefty funding needed for tourism development

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Hieu said at aconference on investment promotion for green tourism in the Mekong Deltain Can Tho City on June 30 that the sum would go to developing modernfacilities and services to enable the tourism sector to serve some 18million international visitors a year by 2030, or more than double thefigure last year.

The State budget and official development assistance (ODA) loans areexpected to account for 15-20% of the total amount and the private andforeign-invested sectors the remainder.

Hieu said investments in tourism in the Mekong Delta region includingthe financial support from the State budget have been insignificant overthe years.

Data of the ministry showed the central State budget has earmarked onlyVND464 billion for tourism in the Mekong Delta region in 2011-2015,with VND101 billion in 2011, VND122 billion in 2012, VND50 billion in2013, VND72 billion in 2014 and VND119 billion this year.

By June 2015, foreign companies had got involved in 30 tourism projectswith combined registered capital of over US$200 million, making up amere 1.6% in capital and 2.9% in number of projects in the region.

“Almost all foreign-invested projects involve hotels and eco-tourism sites,” Hieu said.

The 2011-2015 period has seen ODA funding of US$80.4 million going totourism in the Mekong Delta, mostly in the localities belonging to theeconomic corridor development project for the Greater Mekong Subregion.This source of finance has not been channeled into any tourismdevelopment projects benefiting the Mekong Delta region.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh said Vietnam and its Mekong Deltaregion have more advantages in attracting tourists than other regionalcountries. He asked why Vietnam could lure 7-8 million internationalpassengers a year while the number is 25 million in Thailand and 27million in Malaysia.

Ninh called on ministries and localities to cooperate in infrastructuredevelopment using finances from both the State and the private sectorfor the tourism industry and product diversification.

Localities need to invest more in human resource development for thetourism sector, improve product and service quality, protect theenvironment and help locals better understand the important role of thetourism sector in economic growth and income improvement.

At the conference, cities and provinces in the Mekong Delta regionintroduced a total of 62 tourism projects in need of domestic andforeign investments. These projects require VND11.86 trillion and US$715million.

The authorities handed over investment certificates to a number oftourism and commercial projects, including an international eco-tourismproject worth over VND445 billion and invested by InternationalEco-tourism Co. Ltd. and a VND300-billion eco-tourism project by TruongHuy Hotel and Trading Co. Ltd.

Hefty funding needed for tourism development

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