Lost opportunity due to lack of land fund

After the "eagle" of Intel Products Vietnam returned to "nest" in Ho Chi Minh City’s Hi-Tech Park, with a total investment capital of nearly 1.5 billion USD after two registrations, so far, the city has only welcomed more. Another large FDI enterprise is Samsung. Last year, Samsung HCMC CE Complex raised capital over 841 million USD, helping Ho Chi Minh City have a project to be in the Top 5 largest FDI projects in 2022 across the country.

Currently, Ho Chi Minh City is still in the top of localities attracting total FDI in the country, but recently, foreign investment in the city has shown signs of slowing down. Last year, the total value of FDI registered to invest in the locality reached US$4.33 billion, equivalent to only 60.29% in 2021; The first 6 months of 2023 have improved, reaching $ 2.8 billion, up 30.7% over the same period.

The largest increase in FDI capital in the first 6 months of 2023 in Ho Chi Minh City was capital contribution, share purchase, and capital acquisition when 1,089 foreign investors made it, with a capital contribution of 2.2 billion USD, increased 3.6 times over the same period last year.

Worth mentioning, although FDI in Ho Chi Minh City has improved in the first 6 months of this year, it is a fact that billion-dollar projects are tending to choose other localities to invest. In the period of 2017 - 2021, the Top 5 largest annual projects are usually distributed in Thai Nguyen, Bac Ninh, Nam Dinh, Hai Phong, Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Binh Duong, or a few provinces in the Southwest region.

During this period, only in 2019, Ho Chi Minh City had 2 projects in the Top 5, but the investment value was 650 million USD (Techtronic Tools) and 300 million USD (Wanna Explore Travel). Currently, there is a high-tech enterprise promoting investment research in the City, with an investment scale of about 700 million USD.

Ho Chi Minh City is developing a project to attract FDI in the period of 2023 - 2025, with a vision to 2030, which is aimed at strategic investors (investing capital from 30,000 billion VND for ordinary projects or from 3,000 billion VND to projects). innovation research project). According to a report by the Department of Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh City, by 2025, this locality is expected to attract over 50 high-tech projects, with at least one big-name high-tech corporation, total investment capital. at least 3 billion USD.

At the same time, the goal is that the ratio of registered investment capital of 17 key investors reaches 70% of the total capital in the period of 2023 - 2025. This group includes: Korea, Japan, Singapore, China, and Taiwan (China). China), Malaysia, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Philippines, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, UK, USA.

Despite great ambition, HCMC’s ability to attract FDI is facing a number of challenges. In particular, the lack of industrial land to attract large projects and large investors for new industries is one of the big challenges.

The two new industrial parks, when put into operation, will quench the thirst for production space for many years, helping the city to have more land fund to attract big investors.

Mr. Tran Viet Ha, Deputy Head of Ho Chi Minh City Industrial and Export Processing Zones Management Board (Hepza)

Mr. Tran Viet Ha, Deputy Head of the Management Board of Ho Chi Minh City Industrial and Export Processing Zones (Hepza) said, for many years, the biggest difficulty of export processing zones and industrial parks in the city is the lack of land fund to serve investors wishing to build large factories.

In fact, for more than 10 years, the City has not had any new industrial zones. That is also the reason why some big investors have chosen Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Long An to set up factories.

The representative of the Association of Industrial Park Enterprises of Ho Chi Minh City (HBA) also assessed that the biggest bottleneck in attracting investment in the city is the lack of land fund. This year alone, the city has 46 hectares of land for lease, but this land fund is scattered and scattered in many districts, not a concentrated land.

Meanwhile, the city still has some industrial park land that has not been removed, for example, Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park has 320 hectares; Cu Chi Northwest Industrial Park has more than 100 hectares.

"If we can’t handle the bottleneck in land, it will be difficult to develop industry, without land, it is impossible to attract investment," Mr. Duc emphasized.

Regain the advantage

In fact, the depletion of clean land for industry in Ho Chi Minh City has been warned for a long time, but recently has become more stressful when many foreign partners and domestic enterprises are looking for land plots. big enough to put the factory but no. Meanwhile, some industrial parks are planned but difficult to implement.

Therefore, earlier this year, three industrial parks, Bau Dung, Phuoc Hiep, and Xuan Thoi Thuong, were allowed by the Government to be removed from the industrial park development planning in Vietnam, and at the same time, Pham Van Hai industrial park was added. I (379 ha) and Pham Van Hai II Industrial Park (289 ha) in Pham Van Hai commune, Binh Chanh district in the planning for development of industrial parks.

Mr. Tran Viet Ha said, up to now, more than 10 industrial park infrastructure investors, both domestic and foreign, have registered to participate as investors in the construction of infrastructure of the 2 industrial parks mentioned above; in which, there are familiar names such as Logos, Techtronic Industries, Goldman Sachs, Einhell, Quantum...

Immediately after the Government approved the inclusion of Pham Van Hai I and II Industrial Parks in the planning, Hepza asked the Department of Planning and Architecture of Ho Chi Minh City to put the two projects into the City Plan for the period of 2021 - 2030, with a vision range. look to 2050; at the same time, request the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to include these two industrial parks in the land use plan for the period 2021 - 2025.

Mr. Ha hopes that these two new industrial parks, when put into operation, will quench the thirst for production space for many years, helping the city to have more land fund to attract big investors, and at the same time, the region In the West, a chain of industrial parks will be formed, including Le Minh Xuan Industrial Park (Binh Chanh District), Tan Tao Industrial Park (Binh Tan District) and Tan Do, Tan Duc and Hanh Phuc Industrial Parks (Duc Hoa District). , Long An province)..., forming a key industrial zone, increasing linkages between industrial parks, supporting each other in the process of attracting investment and attracting labor resources.

Along with the increase in land fund, a recent report by the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City shows that this locality is prioritizing investment attraction in the digital economy, microelectronics, semiconductor and information technology, and naturalization. automation, precision mechanics; new materials, pharmaceuticals, biological industry, high-tech agriculture, environmental technology, clean energy... Along with that, it is promoting the construction of transport infrastructure projects, logistics services, creating more industrial land fund as well as focus on deploying human resources training, building digital government...

Mr. Truong Minh Huy Vu, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Development Research Institute, analyzed that the city has tools to attract stronger FDI in the coming time, especially planning tools.

“The spirit of the city’s leaders in the policy of attracting FDI is to aim and best meet the needs of investors who have been operating in the area. As for tools, the city is planning with the criteria of attaching importance to regional linkages. Currently, a series of inter-regional traffic projects such as the Ring Road 3 project, the Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai expressway... are being implemented," he said, emphasizing that traffic goes first, industry goes first, he said. following and supporting policies will contribute to promoting the economy and attracting FDI.