According to figures from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the region has 156 ICs covering an area of 13,382ha, but 89 of them, covering 8,186ha, remain idle.

Nguyen Van Thiep, director of the Long An Province Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said ICs in Duc Hoa, Ben Luc and Can Giuoc districts were sparsely occupied.

Phan Thanh Phi, head of the Long An Industrial Parks Management Board, said: "None of the 20 IPs in the province have a 100 per cent occupancy rate. So it is easy to understand why many ICs in the province have not attracted investors."

In Dong Thap Province’s Thanh Binh District, 46.7ha of agricultural land were acquired to set up the Binh Thanh IC, but several years later, only three factories have been built in it.

The rest of the lands remain unused even as locals have no lands for farming.

The situation is also the same at the Tan My Chanh IC in Tien Giang Province. Despite its convenient location and good infrastructure, only a small part of it has been leased out, with the rest remaining covered in weeds.

Over recent years, authorities in the region have held a number of conferences to solicit investment and offered incentives, but the region’s poor infrastructure has deterred investors, analysts say.

It requires at least VND4 billion (USD223,800) to acquire 1ha of land, they add. Thus, with more than 8,000ha lying idle in the ICs, the area has squandered away billions of dollars.

Despite the low occupancy at An Thanh 1 IC, the Tien Giang Province People’s Committee this month approved a zoning plan including the 33.7ha An Thanh 2 IC in Cai Be District.

Dong Thap, which already has 19 clusters, plans to build 11 more on a total area of 700ha.

Ben Tre Province also plans to develop many ICs in Mo Cay Nam, Mo Cay Bac and Giong Trom districts.

"The race to build ICs in the region has made the life of thousands of residents unstable," said Vo Hung Dung, director of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry chapter in Can Tho City.

Besides, the development of industrial parks and ICs in recent years had caused serious pollution in the region since more attention was paid to economic development than environmental issues, he warned.