Industrial parks, zones urged to focus on hi-tech

Export processing zones and industrial parks in HCM City should give priority to companies that are environmentally friendly, use high technology, offer high value-added products and services, and are not labour-intensive, according to Le Thanh Hai, Secretary of the municipal Party Committee.

“Although EPZs and IPs have played an important role in attracting investment, most investors are small-and medium-sized businesses in labour-intensive industries with low value-added products,” Hai said at a conference yesterday in HCM City, held to review the last two decades of EPZ and IP development.

He urged them to speed up technology innovation and provide preferential policies to attract more foreign investors from high-tech sectors.

The number of FDI projects with average investment capital of under US$5 million accounts for 73 per cent of the total FDI projects in EPZs and IPs, according to a report issued by the HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (HEPZA).

Enterprises in labour-intensive industries of garments and textiles, footwear and electronics employ nearly 70 per cent of the total workforce in EPZs and IPs, the report showed.

“Social infrastructure for workers in EPZs and IPs, including apartments, medical clinics, cultural and sports centres, kindergartens and supermarkets, must be developed to improve living conditions of workers,” Hai said.

EPZs and IPs should strengthen environmental protection and ensure regular operation of waste water treatment stations according to required capacity and standards.

He also stressed the essential role of administrative reform to simplify business procedures for investors.

The city has 15 EPZs and IPs covering a total area of 3,500ha.

Fourteen EPZs and IPs have been put into operation with 1,185ha occupied, or 67 per cent of the rentable area, said Vu Van Hoa, head of HEPZA.

As of March, the city’s 14 EPZs and IPs had attracted investment of US$7.7 billion, including capital for industrial production projects, infrastructure construction and service projects. A total of 1,216 projects with combined investment capital of $6.68 billion has been implemented in EPZs and IPs, including 483 FDI projects worth $4.02 billion and 733 domestically invested projects worth $2.66 billion.

Accumulated export turnover of the EPZs and IPs has been $23.2 billion, accounting for 12.5 per cent of the city’s total export turnover and 40 per cent of the city’s industrial export turnover. Over the 20-year period, the EPZs and IPs attracted more than 255,800 workers and more than 20,000 foreign experts.

HEPZA targeted attracting investment capital of $4 billion for the 2011-15 period, Hoa said, adding that the growth rate of export turnover was expected to reach 15 per cent each year during the period. — VNS

HEPZA has received an Independence Order, third class for its contribution to the development of the country.

Tags: Vietnam Industrial Parks