» »Unlabelled » Private investors possibly develop hi-tech parks

Local and foreign investors will be able to set up and develop hi-tech parks and agro parks which have so far been invested through state budgets, the Ministry of Science and Technology said yesterday.

Do Van Loc, head of the ministry's hi-tech department, said at a seminar on investment into hi-tech parks held in HCMC yesterday, that the National Assembly had approved the new law allowing private investors to invest in high tech parks staring in July 2009, a decision that will reduce strain on state budgets.

Investors will get the same incentives for the development of hi-tech infrastructure as the state, Loc said. The new law allows existing industrial parks with several hi-tech projects to transfer into hi-tech parks if they qualify.

The developers will also get the highest incentives for using land for research, technology, enterprise breeding and infrastructure and the Government will support investors building infrastructure for communication, transportation, electronics, water supply and waste treatment, Loc said.

Vietnam has two hi-tech parks, the Saigon Hi-Tech Park and the Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park in Hanoi, and six agro parks.

According to the ministry, some foreign investors are planning hi-tech parks in Vietnam and others have already invested in hi-tech park infrastructure to attract hi-tech companies.

Singapore's leading real estate developer, Mapletree Investment Pte. Ltd., recently cut a deal with Vietnam's Becamex IDC Corp., allowing the Singapore partner the exclusive right to develop a 75-hectare business park in the southern province of Binh Duong.

Under the agreement, Mapletree plans to invest US$400 million to develop an integrated business park inside the 4,200-hectare Binh Duong Integrated Township partly owned by Becamex. The new industrial estate, to bear the tech-sawy name, Mapletree Business City @ Binh Duong, will be the company's maiden integrated business park development in Vietnam. The park will be a world-class modern business park catering to various high tech industries, software and product development, research and development and value-added manufacturing. "It will be a world class modern business park with a comprehensively planned environment for business. Development will be in phases from 2009," said Edmund Cheng, chairman of Mapletree Investments.

At the seminar, Phan Huu Thang, head of the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said Vietnam's hi-tech sector is the most attractive to foreign investors. Vietnam has 100 hi-tech companies from around the world including Intel, Foxconn, Nidec, Samsung and IDG and has attracted US$7 billion from foreign investors.

Source: Saigon Times

Post a Comment