Along with the whole country's vibrant economic development, Long An province has maintained fast, stable and strong growth in the past years to become a dynamic industrial development engine of the Mekong Delta region and the country as a whole. The success of Long An province is significantly contributed to by industrial parks - the leverage for Long An province’s industry.
After the Prime Minister issued the Directive 07/CT-TTG dated March 2, 2012 on management correction and performance improvement of economic zones, industrial parks, and industrial complexes, Long An province pioneered carrying out this review scheme which was approved by the Prime Minister in March 2013. According to the scheme submitted, the province has 28 industrial parks with a total area of 10,200 ha and one border economic zone covering 13,080 ha. To date, the province now has 16 industrial parks with a total area of 4,000 ha ready for secondary investors. The occupancy rate at these facilities is 43.5 per cent.
Apart from measures and activities to support and accelerate technical infrastructure investment and improvement inside and outside industrial parks, Long An province also focuses on renovating and promoting investment attraction activities in some industrially developed countries and territories, gives special priority to large-scale projects using advanced, environment-friendly technologies, and encourages projects manufacturing products to replace imports and components for local industrial production. With clearly defined orientations, industrial parks in Long An province have quickly become ideal destinations for investors. By the end of March 2013, industrial zones housed 724 secondary projects, including 236 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with a total registered capital of US$1.6 billion and 488 domestic direct investment projects with a total registered capital of nearly VND26,000 billion (US$1.3 billion). In 2012 despite enormous difficulties caused by economic downturn, the industrial zone authority licensed 103 investment projects, including 43 FDI projects with a total registered capital of US$127 million.
Currently, among 724 secondary investment projects in industrial zones in the province, 308 projects have gone into operation. With these impressive figures, Long An province took the lead in the Mekong Delta region in domestic and foreign investment attraction. Though Taiwanese and South Korean investors previously dominated foreign investors in the province, Japanese investors are now leading. Phan Thanh Phi, head of the Long An Economic Zone Authority, said investors with very demanding requirements from the start usually strictly abide by State regulations.
He said the outstanding advantages of Long An province are its adjacency to Ho Chi Minh City and its function as the gateway to the Mekong Delta region. Previously, investors flowed into Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces due to very good infrastructure systems there. But when the land fund in these localities became limited, the wave of investment capital shifted into the Mekong Delta region. Functioning as the gateway to the Mekong Delta, Long An is a top choice for those investing in this potential region. And, the province also constantly refreshes its image, with highlights placed on synchronised infrastructure systems to catch the new wave of investors.
The Long An Economic Zone Authority also makes a constant effort to synchronise administrative reform, apply ISO management standards and seek appropriate solutions to support investors. Each year, Long An receives hundreds of investment projects because of the serious working manner of provincial authorities and active cooperation of investors.
In the coming time, Long An province will strive to complete site clearance and infrastructure construction in all industrial zones to bring them into operation soon, thus helping realise the target of becoming an industrialised province by 2020. Particularly, the Prime Minister approved a revised industrial zone development plan which included the list of industrial parks to be developed in Long An province until 2020. Under the plan, the province will have nine industrial parks to be established and expanded from now to 2020, including Viet Phat (formerly called Tan Thanh), Phu An Thanh, Nam Thuan (formerly Dai Loc), Tan Phu, The Ky, Huu Thanh, Nam Tan Lap, Long Hau 3, and An Nhat Tan 2.
Thanh Tam
Vietnamese
