Although the meeting with investors in HCMC was scheduled to start at 3pm on March 20, Tuan arrived about 30 minutes early. Before the opening, he engaged in sideline discussions with businesses, sharing investment opportunities and listening to feedback from the business community.

At the event, Tuan said his rotation as leader of the former Binh Dinh province, now the new Gia Lai province, is for four years. In recent years, he has had at least three meetings with HCMC businesses, with each time offering a different experience.

At the first meeting, businesses from HCMC showed skepticism and considered Gia Lai not yet attractive enough for investment. At the second meeting, businesses’ interest in Gia Lai began to increase. Local products gradually reached international markets thanks to connections facilitated by the HCMC Business Association.

By the third meeting in 2025, the message from provincial leaders had shifted significantly when engaging with the HCMC business community.

“After the merger, Gia Lai province now holds a strategic location, and this is a great opportunity for businesses to come and invest," Tuan said, adding that the locality will organize a large investment promotion conference on March 28.

At this conference, Gia Lai province will grant investment certificates worth nearly $10 billion and sign MOUs (memorandums of understanding) with partners worth about $25 billion.

"MOUs here mean signing and doing for real. The proof is that all MOUs that the former Binh Dinh province and the current Gia Lai province signed have been implemented for real," he said.

These include a breakwater and port project in Phu My worth nearly $10,000 billion. It  had been a difficult problem, but the province found a suitable investor.

Connection and cooperation

Also according to Tuan, on March 29, Gia Lai province will work with four provincial governors in Southern Laos and three provincial governors in Northeastern Cambodia to discuss investment by Vietnamese businesses which engage in agricultural development.

According to the plan, provincial businesses will cultivate various types of crops in the neighboring countries. After harvesting, agricultural products will be brought back to Gia Lai for deep processing and then exported through Phu My port.

To ensure convenient circulation of goods, the Quy Nhon - Pleiku expressway has commenced construction and is expected to be completed by early 2028.

In addition, construction on the second runway at Phu Cat Airport began in August 2025. Expected to be completed in June 2026, it will be able to serve large aircraft.

Tran Du Lich, a respected economist, assessed that in the next 1-2 years, Gia Lai province will have a nearly complete connecting infrastructure, including road systems, seaports and airports, which will help investment potential.

Regarding administrative reform, Gia Lai provincial leaders have committed to resolving matters quickly rather than letting dossiers be returned for being insufficient after submission.

Small projects will be guided through implementation procedures. And for large projects, provincial agencies will work alongside businesses. 

As evidence, when several large, famous corporations had investment activities in Vietnam and Laos, Gia Lai province immediately established a working group with the provincial chairman directly serving as the team leader to implement alongside the businesses.

For instance, local agencies worked together with Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group so that investment projects could be started quickly. After reaching a consensus on the implementation plan, the business simply submitted the dossier according to regulations.

This openness and receptiveness of the locality were confirmed by Dong Thi Anh, Chair of the Board of Directors of Pisico Binh Dinh Corporation. She said: "It seems that if there are any incentives that can be done for businesses, the province will not overlook them."

Anh said she hoped HCMC businesses would come to Gia Lai province to invest and become companions of the localities.

Also at the conference, a promising cooperation proposal from Dang Thi Minh Phuong, the chair of the HCMC Logistics and Seaport Association, resulted in the Gia Lai provincial chair inviting her to the locality for further discussion.

Tran Chung