Highland districts find it difficult to attract investment.

Attracting investment in infrastructure and urban development in districts faces many difficulties. *In the photo: A corner of Muong Cha town, Muong Cha district.*

In recent years, the Party Committees and authorities of mountainous districts have implemented many solutions to attract non-state investment resources to the area. In addition to issuing many policies and mechanisms on administrative reform and improving the investment and business environment, localities have also focused on reviewing, researching and prioritizing the selection of industries and fields with strengths to attract investment. Up to now, some localities have attracted investors to study and survey such as: Hydropower (Dien Bien Dong district); agriculture (Nam Po and Muong Nhe districts); medicinal plants (Tuan Giao district) ... However, the investment attraction work has not been commensurate with the potential and advantages of the localities, most of the projects are small and medium-sized, with low investment value. The progress of project implementation is still slow, unfinished, and the number of investment projects is small. For example, the province has attracted non-state enterprises to invest in 13 macadamia planting projects, mainly in Nam Po, Muong Nhe, Tua Chua, Dien Bien Dong districts, and the People's Committee has approved the investment policy with a scale of 85,814 hectares, with a total investment capital of more than 15,550 billion VND. However, up to now, many projects are behind schedule, and some projects have not been implemented. Therefore, the Provincial People's Committee has decided to reduce 30,430 hectares of macadamia planting projects. Some projects have not been implemented, affecting people's lives. A typical example is the project of raising breeding cows and beef cattle of U Va Livestock Joint Stock Company in Quai Nua commune, Tuan Giao district with an investment of more than 1,000 billion VND. The project has a scale of 100,000 cows, divided into 2 phases: Phase 1 from 2016 - 2017 raises 30,000 cows; Phase 2 from 2017 - 2018 continues to develop an additional 70,000 cows, construction investment time from June - September 2016. To implement the project, the company bought dozens of hectares of land from more than 290 households, but until now the project is still on paper.

In Tua Chua district, although it is assessed to have potential in culture and tourism, the district has not yet attracted non-state investors in this field. Recently, a number of corporations and companies have come to survey tourism investment in the area, such as: Sun Group Corporation, Imtracom Company... but so far there has been no new change.

The reason why mountainous districts have difficulty attracting investment is primarily due to the fact that the infrastructure has not met the needs of investors, mainly due to the rugged mountainous terrain and limited transportation system. Legal regulations on procedures and paperwork are still complicated. In addition, the labor resources of the districts are still limited, lacking specialized workers, most of whom are unskilled and low-skilled workers. Therefore, in recent years, attracting investment resources has been mainly in Dien Bien Phu City and districts with favorable traffic conditions and geographical locations.

To solve the above shortcomings, enhance the attractiveness of investment attraction in mountainous districts, exploit the maximum potential, contribute to solving employment for workers, it is necessary to have appropriate "unblocking" mechanisms. Especially credit policies, access to land resources. In addition to calling for support from the central and provincial budgets, districts need to be proactive in researching and arranging investment budgets for infrastructure development, especially transport infrastructure. In addition, promote the improvement of the investment environment; regularly organize dialogues with businesses to grasp the obstacles and difficulties to find solutions. Strengthen vocational training to improve the quality of labor to meet the requirements of businesses.

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