HCMC asks removal of three pending industrial parks to create clean land fund

To welcome the investment wave, attract projects of supporting industry, high-tech industry, and industry with large supply chains in the region, maintain the role of the economic locomotive of the whole country, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City has just proposed the Government to allow the removal of three industrial parks (IPs), comprising Bau Dung and Phuoc Hiep in Cu Chi District, and Xuan Thoi Thuong in Hoc Mon District. The city proposed to replace them with Pham Van Hai Industrial Park in Binh Chanh District, with a total area of 668 hectares.
HCMC asks removal of three pending industrial parks to create clean land fund ảnh 1 The planning of Xuan Thoi Thuong Industrial Park with an area of 300 ha in Hoc Mon District.
Investors give up

More than 10 years ago, three industrial parks, Bau Dung, Phuoc Hiep, and Xuan Thoi Thuong, were included in the planning of expected industrial zones in the area until 2020, with an extension to 2025, of the municipal People's Committee. Since then, these three IPs have not been deployed yet, affecting thousands of people in Cu Chi and Hoc Mon districts. According to the approved plan, Bau Dung Industrial Park is located in An Nhon Tay Commune of Cu Chi District with a scale of 175ha, prioritized to develop the agricultural engineering industry and other key industries. In 2008, the HCMC People's Committee approved in principle to assign Van Phat Hung Joint Stock Company as an investor. However, only one year later, this enterprise withdrew and stopped investing. Since then, this industrial park has been remaining pending because it failed to find a new investor.

Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park is located in Trung Lap Ha and Hiep Phuoc communes with a scale of 200ha, specializing in pharmaceutical chemistry. In 2010, AN.SA Corp. was granted an investment certificate. However, for seven years, this company did not have any activities. In 2017, the HCMC Export Processing Zones and Industrial Parks Authority revoked the investment license of this enterprise.

The planning of the two aforesaid industrial zones involves about 400 households, mainly agricultural production and cow farms of some enterprises. The rest is the land for people to grow grass, short-term industrial crops, orchids, and fruit trees.

Xuan Thoi Thuong Industrial Park has a scale of 300ha and an adjacent residential area of 80ha in Xuan Thoi Thuong Commune of Hoc Mon District. The city's policy is to develop the light industry and prioritize the development of the food and foodstuff processing industry. In 2010, HCMC approved the policy to assign DIC Joint Stock Company as an investor and make project planning for this industrial park and adjacent residential area. The total expected investment at that time was about VND3 trillion. The project was divided into two phases, with Phase 1 from 2011 to the end of 2016 and Phase 2 from 2017 to 2022.

However, three years later, the investor had not taken any action yet, so authorities urged it by written documents. In 2013, DIC issued a written document, pledging to complete the master plan of the 1/2000 scale of the project in 2014 and the compensation and site clearance in 2015. In 2016, HCMC revoked the project investment policy of DIC. Up to now, although the project has not had an investor, it is still under the status of a planned industrial park, so thousands of people live in the pending planning. According to statistics of Hoc Mon District, more than 2,000 households are living in the area of this project, with nearly 900 houses of all kinds. Angry residents have sent many complaints and denunciations.

In many meetings with voters, residents of Cu Chi and Hoc Mon districts had asked HCMC to remove the planning of these three industrial park projects.

These three projects were approved in 2008 by the Government. It is more than ten years now, but there is no investor and no policy on land acquisition. The procedures for project planning have not been implemented, and projects are all unfeasible. These projects have heavily affected people living within the boundaries of these projects because the infrastructure is degraded, but it is not invested. The construction and repair of houses or the donation and transfer of land cannot be carried out, along with several inadequacies in terms of security, order, safety, and hygiene for people living in these pending projects. Therefore, the People's Committee of HCMC has asked to withdraw the planning of these three industrial parks.

Preparing hundreds of hectares of potential clean land

In the Report No.2108/TTR-UBND signed by Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of HCMC Vo Van Hoan to send to the Prime Minister recently, the municipal People's Committee asked for the permission of the Government to remove the planning of the three aforesaid industrial parks and replace them with Pham Van Hai Industrial Park in Binh Chanh District with an area of 668ha. The total approved industrial land fund of the city is 7,000 ha. At present, there are four out of 23 IPs that have not been established, including the three IPs mentioned above. The scale of Pham Van Hai Industrial Park was proposed at 380ha earlier but now is adjusted to 668ha. That is appropriate with the deletion of these three industrial parks. According to the plan, attached to this mega industrial park is 100ha of adjacent residential and urban land to serve the industrial park.

According to the assessment of HCMC, the location of this land is currently agricultural land managed and used by the HCMC Plants Company Limited. However, the economic efficiency is low because the soil is heavily contaminated with acid sulfate, usually intruded by saltwater, and polluted by wastewater from surrounding residential areas. Therefore, the transformation of the production structure from inefficient agricultural development to concentrated industrial one is in accordance with natural conditions and uses the land fund effectively.

In the report submitted to the Government, the leaders of HCMC expect that Pham Van Hai Industrial Park will be a new industrial park that can deploy rapidly, attract investment well. It has many favorable features to develop into a new industrial park with high quality and high competitiveness. At the same time, it is also suitable for enterprises applying high technology and supports creative start-ups. Pham Van Hai Industrial Park will support high-tech enterprises, focusing on attracting electrical, electronic, and mechanical automation industries.

The land fund of industrial zones becomes scarcer and scarcer, and existing industrial zones are increasingly filled up. The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting foreign investment flows in the world. There is a shift in investment, changing the global production value chain to other regions, including Southeast Asia. Amid such context, the People's Committee of HCMC acknowledged that preparing a clean industrial land fund, in general, and Pham Van Hai Industrial Park to welcome the above investment shift would create a breakthrough in investment attraction in the coming time.

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