Distribution of Competitiveness and Foreign Direct Investment using Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model

Purpose: Research on attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) plays an important role in helping provinces attract more FDI projects. However, with local competition, FDI enterprises also have to consider their investment. This study evaluates the provincial competitiveness to attract FDI in Thai Nguyen province, a province of Vietnam. In which provincial distribution of competitiveness is measured through nine indicators. Research design, data, and methodology: The study collects data (FDI and the provincial competitiveness index) from 2006 to 2020. The study uses Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) to text the impact of distribution of competitivenes on foreign direct investment. With time-series, the ARDL is suitable for data analysis. Results: The regression results indicate that the competition index of market entry and informal costs negatively impact attracting FDI into the province; The human resource training quality index has a positive effect on FDI. The results show that FDI enterprises pay much attention to business establishment procedures, hidden costs, and quality of human resources in the province. Conclusions: At the same time, in terms of practice, the results of this study, the authors also offer solutions to help improve the ability to attract FDI into Thai Nguyen province. The significant provincial competitiveness indicators should be taken into account for improvement first.