HCM City’s IPs draw US$384 million in investment

Nguyen Tan Phuoc, Vice Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Export Processing and Industrial Zone Authority (HEPZA), said that the increase in investment was attributed to the upgrade and expansion of infrastructure systems in local industrial parks (IPs) and export processing zones (EPZs).

Convenient transportation that is connected to seaports, airports and other localities is also a reason behind the success, along with achievements in administrative reform that have reduced the time for processing administrative documents by 20-50%, he said.

Le Hong Tuoi, head of HEPZA’s Office for Investment Support and Supervision, said that the Republic of Korea was the leading investor in local IPs and EPZs, making up 55% of the total investment, followed by Taiwan and Japan.

The food, supporting industry for the garment-textile sector, services and chemicals attracted most of the major projects in the first half of this year, he said.

Tuoi also revealed that in the rest of the year, the city will focus on speeding up the construction of plants and encouraging firms to develop infrastructure to remove difficulties in terms of ground and business spaces.

Meanwhile, the city will work to draw more investors, thus fulfilling its annual target of US$500 million in investment.

So far, IPs and EPZs in the city has accommodated 1,461 valid projects worth US$9.7 billion, including 551 foreign-invested projects with a total capital of US$5.5 billion.