It included $1.4 billion for the Samsung CE Complex Project to research, develop, and manufacture hi-tech consumer electronics.

Licensed last month it is the second $1 billion project at the park after Intel’s chip factory approved in 2006.

"This [Samsung] project indicates the [competitiveness] of the SHTP brand name," Le Bich Loan, deputy director of the park, said.

She said work is underway on infrastructure for the Samsung project, which will begin production next year.

Another major investor this year is the Sai Gon Industry Corporation, which will build a $257 million IC (integrated circuit) plant to manufacture RFID chips, bank cards, and energy management chips.

Construction of the plant would begin soon and it is scheduled to go on stream in 2017, the company said.

OneHub Sai Gon Complex, a $130 million joint venture between the Singapore-based Ascendas and Saigon Bund Capital Partners (UK), will be a services sector project built on a 12ha area.

SHTP’s tenants will include Transimex Hi-tech Park Logistics Co, which will set up a bonded warehouse and logistics services facility at a cost of VND300 billion (over $14 million).

Le Hoang Quan, chairman of the city People’s Committee, said Samsung’s investment at the SHTP shows the effort made by the city authorities in selecting FDI into HCM City. The city has focused on attracting investment in hi-tech industries instead of large-scale labour-intensive projects.

With the licences issued in October, total investment in the 12-year-old park has exceeded $4 billion, according to its management board.

Dr Le Hoai Quoc, head of the SHTP, said nearly 40 per cent of the workers in the park are college and university graduates, and the value of the products their companies have churned out so far has exceeded $9 billion, and most of them have been exported.

He added that through 2020 the park would focus on efforts to attract hi-tech investors and increase the rate of locally made parts.